TF Power of Ten: The Next
by grimlock.trex99
Summary: [Summary in chapter 1] Rated T for language. (Not much of the 'bots, no 'cons at all. Okay, the 'no 'cons' thing might not turn out to be a lie.)
1. 0 Prologue

Bellwood, Earth, 2045...

The Storyteller was doing his grocery shopping at Mister Baumann's store. Like always, his robotic assistant EDNA was with him.

"Excuse me." The Storyteller asked one of the store's employees, who was a minicon. "Are these ginko berries fresh?"

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, but ginko berries are toxic to most higher forms of life if they're fresh. Why do you ask?"

"Just checking. Can't have you poisoning your customers." The Storyteller placed five of the purple banana shaped fruits in the basket he was carrying.

EDNA whirred to ask the Storyteller something.

"I don't know why Bralla wanted to use Ginko berries. Honestly, I thought she'd use Amber Oggia for Miko and Jack's wedding cake." The Storyteller replied. "What's next on the list?"

EDNA whirred. But it didn't make sense to the Storyteller. "What? Children? Isn't that a crime in most civilized societies, in fact-" The Storyteller was interrupted when an arrow of bluish magenta mana energy pointed down. The Storyteller took a few steps back and saw one of the Tennyson kids.

"Hello Ariel." The Storyteller bent down to get at eye level with the child. "I see your Aunt Gwendolyn has been teaching you how to use your powers. So what're you doing here?"

"Well, I came to pick up some SOLU-cream for my mom."

The Storyteller instantly knew why Ariel had been sent grocery shopping. "Oh. It's the thirty first of march. Your parent have a sorta tradition where they cook something Kamen Rider themed around this time of year."

"It's kinda stupid."

"Don't let your parent hear you say that." A kineceleran human hybrid said. It wasn't Helen, it was her son Eiji, Eiji Tomari. "Your folks wouldnt've hooked up if they didn't have a common interest to start their relationship."

"Okay, this can't be a coincidence. Why're you two here?"

A human boy, who was actually half cybertronian, step out from behind his older sister. "Mister Storyteller, could you tell us the second part of that story about my dad?"

"Sure, why not? After I get done shopping, I'll meet you kids by the statue of Mashin Chaser in the park. You'll wait for me, yes?"

"We will." Ariel, the Gwen of her group of friends, nodded her head. "Can a few of our friend come listen?"

"Sure. Now run along children, I won't take long."

* * *

Later...

Ariel, Orion, and Eiji were waiting. Rachel Esquivel, the daughter of one of Jack's friends, Rook Sigma, the son of Blonko and Rayona, and Caitlin Levin, Gwen and Kevin's daugher were waiting by the collection of statues honoring Masked Rider Chase, who gave his life years ago to keep everyone safe from the Roidmudes.

"So, you think he's coming?" Caitlin asked. "He probably lied to us so that we'd leave him alone."

"He wouldn't do something like that." Ariel said, lifting the girl who could absorb energy up with her powers. "He's my dad's friend."

"Sorry I said that. Now please put me down."

Ariel lowered her cousin.

"But where is he?" Eiji asked. "This is the place."

"Yes, but The Storyteller never gave us a time for when he would be finished." Sigma interjected. "We could be here waiting for him for an hour or more."

"Or less than a minute." Rachel said, pointing at the storyteller who was walking towards the statue.

When The Storyteller got to the statue, he sat down on the bench that was in front of it.

"So children. You wanted me to continue the story about Jack Tennyson?"

"Yes sir." Ariel nodded.

"Excelent. Now, much like the beginning of the first part, we start this story with meeting the villains." The Storyteller turned to EDNA. "EDNA, new file. Title it, TF Power of Ten The Next."

Story begin...

* * *

Author's note: A few things to discuss in the prologue. First, the kids.

Orion and Ariel are obviously Jack and Arcee's kids. But the rest are new.

Eiji Tomari is Helen and Shinnosuke's son. He's ten, so this means the events of this chapter take place ten years before the events of Surprise Future(on Eiji's end). He's half Kineceleran and half human. He's going to be the second Masked Rider Drive. The Rook of the group, level head, serious, but can take a joke.

Caitlin Levin is Gwen and Kevin's Daughter. Unlike her mother, she doesn't have Anodite powers, but hers are closer to Kevin's but instead of absorbing matter, she absorbs energy. Despite her parents' roles in the team dynamic; she's the Jack of the group. Impulsive, rushes head first into battle, but has a kind heart and does the right thing.

Rook Sigma is Rook Blonko and Rayona's son, chose the name Sigma because Orion was already taken by Jack's son. He's the Shinnosuke of the group, the idiot(but no an unintelligent one) who over thinks everything.

Rachel Esquivel is Raf's Daughter. Whether she has some special traits is yet to be seen. It's obvious that she's the Raf/Kevin of the group.

There's also Rook Wheeljack, Miko and Rook Jack's son. He's basically just like his mom, likes to sneak off, gets into trouble, and gets his friend into trouble. But he doesn't do it maliciously, he just wants excitement. Named himself after Wheeljack, and is called Jackie Junior or JJ by Bulkhead and Wheeljack. It goes without saying that he's the Miko of the group. Currently too young to be on his own. Born out of wedlock, which resulted in a sorta shotgun wedding.

Ariel Tennyson is eleven. She inherited the Anodite abilities from her father's side of the family. She was born without a t-cog which isn't much of a hindrance since Cybertronians no longer need to hide. She looks like Arcee, but has pink optics and magenta armor with light green highlights. She's the Gwen of the group, the level headed one.

Orion Tennyson was born without any special powers. He's eight years old at the time. He's gonna get an Omnitrix, but a lot earlier than he expects. He looks human but has a spark instead of a heart. The Ben of the group, a show off who has something to prove..

Both of Jack's kids can eat either energon or organic matter. They're technorganics, but just on different levels.

Next, the world of the future. It's the year 2045, which is about thirty years after the end of Power of Ten, which if TFP's timescale is anything to go by took place in the year 2010. It's also twelve years after the sixteen year old version of Jack met his future self. Its years after the events of RID 2015, which based on the episode _Bumblebee's Night Off_ , it most likely takes place in the not too distant future, given that a band called Rear Axel that the episode implied that Miko introduced him to it. And given the fact that they're still doing concerts, it hasn't been that long since Prime.

Also, normal humans know about the Autobots by the year 2040, infact, they're rather common on the Earth. In fact, there's a place called Autobot City on Earth. Also, public knowledge of Cybertronians isn't new. The public was made aware of their existence in late 2013.


	2. 1 Jack 10 Returns part 1

Summary: It's been almost three years since Jack threw the Decepticons of the planet. In that time, Team Prime tracked down the members of Team Nadir and imprisoned them to keep them from harming civilians. Things went quiet after that, and Jack had the Omnitrix removed in an attempt to have a somewhat normal life. But the grand scheme of the universe has plans for Jack. A new threat emerges. The Highbreed. Their goal, unknown. All that is know, they are more dangerous then the Decepticons. So Jack has to put the Omnitrix on once more, but this time, there'll be no turning back. If things changed last time, than this time, well, in short, if you don't fight, you won't survive. So, as our hero says, **"It's hero time!"** *cracks knuckles* Let's go!

* * *

Unknown location...

In a chamber that had many structures that resembled the neurons of a brain, a humanoid alien that was sickly yellow and purple walked walked towards a web of the neuron like structures. The creature, known as a DNAlien had an exposed brain and a single tear drop shaped light green eye, which had a red pupil and a black iris.

The DNAlien bowed when it stood in front of a blue disk that had 'waves' on it. Seconds later, an alien appeared on the screen. It was mostly white with a purple face. It had four red eyes on its face as well as four eye like markings on its chest. Beneath the markings was what appeared to be an opening that had what appeared to be its internal organs. It had orange wings that were splayed open, although they were white on the other side. This is a Highbreed. It spoke to the DNAlien.

"You may speak to me, half-breed vermin." The Highbreed said, sounding as if it were superior to the DNAlien.

"Gratitude, Master." The DNAlien faced the Highbreed. "For months now, someone has been leaking the details of our secret operations to the authorities. I have new information of interest. We have found the source of the leak." The DNAlien held up a silver disk with a light blue lens. He/ it pressed a button on the side of the disk, displaying a hologram of Max Tennyson. "His name is Max Tennyson." The DNAlien explained. "We've had trouble with him before."

"Then let this be the final time he troubles us. Destroy him." The Highbreed ordered.

* * *

Bellwood...

It's been three years since Team Nadir was defeated by Team Prime. All's been peaceful. Two years ago, Jack took off the Omnitrix. We now find a nineteen year old Jack Tennyson playing on his high school's soccer team.

Currently, one of the players from the opposing team was dribbling the ball. He was dodging all the players that were on Jack's team, making sharp turns, and even jumping over one that tried to slide at him. He was blocked by three of the players that wore white and green. He saw that one of his teammates was waving his arms.

"Pass it to me! Pass it to me!" The guy that was waving his arms shouted. He looked kinda like Raf, but rest assured, this isn't Raf. This was JT, the one that had the ball at the moment was named Cash. "Come on! I'm open!"

Cash looked at the clock. There was only fifteen seconds left. Surrounded, he passed the ball to JT, who ran towards the goal. The current goalie for the white team was Jack(who didn't look that different from when he was sixteen and how he is now). Jack glared at JT as he got closer. When JT kicked the ball, it curved and was heading to one of the upper corners. However, Jack's reflexes were fast enough to catch the ball right as the clock hit zero. Jack's team won two to one.

The crowd cheered.

"Whoa!" Jack was taken off guard as his teammates lifted him up.

"All right, Jack! Way to go!" One of the people in the crowd, Jack's guardian Arcee, shouted. She was glad that with the 'cons gone, she, as well as the others, could take the time to learn about their human friends.

* * *

Later...

Jack was walking to Arcee's alt mode. He had a black t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a green jacket with a white ten in a black circle on the left side.

Jack read what was on the medal that he had gotten. "MVP." Jack said to himself. "Most valuable player."

Arcee heard this and thought to herself: 'More like Most Valuable Partner.'

Jack looked up to see a japanese girl that was about Jack's age. She wore a white skirt and a pink hoodie. Her name was Julie.

Jack, caught off guard said awkwardly: Oh, um, I wasn't showing off." I mean, I am going to show it to my grandpa. I guess that is sort of showing off." Jack saw that Julie smiled. "Jack Tennyson. Hi." Jack held out his hand for Julie to shake.

"Julie. I know who you are." Julie shook Jack's hand. "Great game."

"Thanks." Jack got on Arcee's alt mode and put his helmet on. "I really do have to go, though. See you tomorrow?" Jack asked as Arcee back out of the parking lot.

"Okay." Julie answered. "Bye!" She said as she waved to Jack.

"Smooth." Arcee said as she and Jack got on the road. Her voice didn't have a hint of sarcasm. "Guess you really have changed over the years." Arcee inwardly smiled, she was glad Jack's life was now mostly alien free.

Little did she know that Jack's life was once again about to change, and this time, there would be no going back to the way things were before Jack got the Omnitrix that summer almost three and a half years ago.

Arcee drove into lot 4 of an RV lot. They drove over to the Rust Bucket, which June had given back to Max after the second one got trashed with Omega-1 three years ago.

Arcee parked under a tree and took a little nap.

Jack got off and knocked at the door to the Rust Bucket. "Grandpa Max?" Jack asked after he failed to get an answer. "Open up. It's me."

Jack was unaware of the man in the trenchcoat that watched him.

Jack looked into the window of the Rust Bucket to find that the lights were out. Jack looked under a fake rock and found the spare key that his grandfather kept hidden.

The door creaked open. Jack walked in. Her fumbled around looking for a light switch. The place was a mess.

"Hello? Grandpa?" Jack looked around at the items that were strewn about the floor. "What happened in here?" Jack heard a thud. He saw that the bathroom light was on. Jack walked over and found that there was nobody inside.

From behind a curtain, a DNAlien jumped out. It opened its torso and tried to grab Jack with its purple tentacles. Jack rolled to avoid them.

"Ha!" Jack said as he slammed down on his wrist. Seconds later, he realized that he no longer had the Omnitrix. "Oh, man."

The tentacles were propelled at Jack, which the young adult dodged. The DNAlien reformed its body. It lunged at Jack, but Jack opened one of the compartments in the Rust Bucket, causing the DNAlien's clawed hand to get stuck. Jack then hid under the table, which the DNAlien ripped out. It tried to claw Jack again, but Jack managed to get away yet again. The DNAlien pulled its hand out of the Rust Bucket's floor and saw a sneaker that resembled Jack's. It walked over to it. However, it was a lone sneaker, and not the human the DNAlien had been fighting. Jack tapped the DNAlien's shoulder.

"Peekaboo!" Jack sprayed a fire extinguisher at its face. The foam that was sprayed must've caused the DNAlien some sort of pain, which caused it to jump through the window of the Rust Bucket and then run off. Jack had managed to win the fight without going alien. He dropped the extinguisher on the floor.

"That thing was looking for something, grandpa." Jack said, half expecting Max to appear out of nowhere. "But what?" Jack sat in the driver seat and flipped three of the switches in a row of five red ones. It caused the motor to hum. The clock above the fridge went to 12:00. It extended out, revealing that the clock was the lid for a cylindrical container. There was an open area that had a hologram disk resting on it. Jack ran over to it and grabbed it. He pressed the activation button. A hologram of Max, or what Jack thought was Max appeared.

"Hello, Jack." The hologram of Max said.

Grandpa! What's -" Jack had questions for his grandfather, but he was interrupted.

"I left this recording where I knew only you would find it." Max explained. "I'm in a bit of a situation, but it's nothing I can't handle" He held up his hand to signal stop and looked away from Jack. "certainly nothing for you or the 'bots to worry about. There's renewed alien activity on Earth. I'm investigating." The hologram disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later. "Oh, don't worry about the Omnitrix, either. I have it, and it's completely safe. They'll never get their hands on it." That really didn't sit well with Jack. "Say hello to your cousin Gwen for me.

Love you. Max out." The message ended. It happened too fast for Jack to notice, but right before the message ended, a DNAlien was in Max's place.

"You've got the Omnitrix?" Jack was confused. "That can't be right."

Jack exited the Rust Bucket. He woke Arcee from her nap. "Arcee, we gotta go to the base."

"Why? Your mom's expecting you at your house." Arcee replied as she and Jack drove off.

"I'm not going to be spending the night, I just need to get something."

* * *

Autobot base...

Jack and Arcee entered the hanger. Optimus, Ultra Magnus, and Ratchet were present.

"Hello Jackson, how did your soccer match go?" Optimus asked.

Jack got off Arcee and walked towards the fridge that was in the human area. "My team won. I got a medal." Jack then turned to Ratchet. "Ratch, where'd I put the safe?"

"Behind the microwave." Ratchet said. He realized what Jack was looking for. "Jack, remember what your time traveling friend said."

"I know. I know. The next time I put on the Omnitrix, there'll be no going back." Jack found the numerical keypad. He typed in the code 1-0-1-3-1-1(10-1-3-11 or J-A-C-K). In the safe was a key that had an Omnitrix dial where the hole to attach it to a key chain would be.

"Jackson, please reconsider this decision." Ultra Magnus said.

"Sir, if I didn't have to wear this, I wouldn't. But when I went to show grandpa Max the medal I won, I was attacked by an alien. But I'll talk to Gwen about this. She's one of the few people I trust more than you 'bots." Jack rushed down the steps and ran towards Arcee. "Come on 'cee, we have to hurry."

* * *

Later, Jack and June Tennyson's house...

Arcee drove into the driveway and into the garage. Jack ran into the house as fast as possible. His mom was in the kitchen washing the dishes.

"Jack, don't run in the house!" June, despite knowing that her son was both and ex-superhero and nineteen years old, to her, Jack was still her ten year old boy that needed to be told what to and not to do. And him running in the house was very much proof of that.

"Sorry, mom!" Jack apologized as he ran up the stairs and into his room, which had an Omnitrix dial painted on the door.

Jack went to his closet and looked around. "He says he's got the Omnitrix." Jack found a bunch of things that he had collected over the past three years. "I know it's in here somewhere." Jack found a plastic bin he opened it to find it full of what we know as ranger keys. "Rider keys from Kamen Rider Marvel. He dug around, hoping that the box he was looking for was in it. It wasn't. "Oh I remember you." Jack held up a rider key that looked like Heatblast. "Arcee helped me make this." He found another box, one that was smaller. He opened it and found it full of Zyudenchi. "Kingryu's Rider Cells. Nope." He moved onto the third box. It had Ressha in it, but the box was nowhere near full. "Here we go. Ri-xpress' Express Engines, and the Omnitrix." Jack grabbed the cubical container that held the Omnitrix. On the top of it was a key hole. Jack inserted the key. Both the key and the container disintegrated, leaving the Omnitrix in Jack's hand. "What are you trying to tell me, grandpa?" Jack had the suspicion that something was going on.

* * *

Later, at Bellwood Memorial High School...

A nineteen year old Gwen, who looked very much like her sixteen year old self, just a bit more 'developed'. She was in the middle of her taekwondo class. She stood facing her opponent, both of them bowing. Gwen wore a white Gi and had a black belt.

The two stood ready to spar. Gwen brought her fingers together so her hands were in a knife hand strike position. She held her arms to the left and were pointing to the floor. Her opponent balled his hands into fists. His right arm was extended and was pointing towards Gwen while his left arm was kept close to his torso. Gwen brought her fists up and had them in a way that was similar to the motion for 'hold up'.

"Hajime!" The instructor held up his hand. "Fight!" He lowered it.

Gwen's opponent charged at her, shouting: "Hey-yah!" He threw a punch at Gwen, which the teen, okay, young adult, blocked with little effort.

Gwen grabbed onto her opponent's Gi with both of her hands, and using a level of strength I haven't seen since Hina From OOO, she tossed her opponent over her head. "Ha!" She shouted as she slammed him on the ground. Gwen's fellow student didn't get up, but not that he was hurt, I hope. Gwen did a backflip and landed atop her opponent's chest, her legs on either side of his body. Gwen was the stronger fighter in this instance.

"Point" The instructor pointed at Gwen. "victory."

As the students who watched the rather short bout clapped, Gwen helped the one who she defeated back up. They bowed.

As the other students stopped clapping and left the gym, there was still one person left, Jack.

"So how's my favorite cousin?" Jack asked.

"Jack!" Gwen ran up to Jack and gave him a hug. "Still undefeated. Compliments, and you not being at home to watch the latest episode of Kamen Rider with Arcee - it means you want something." Gwen had gotten to know her cousin very well over the past three years. One could argue that she knows Jack better than Arcee, Jack's partner did.

"I got a problem." Jack said, glancing down and to the left. "I need advice."

"Okay, soon as I change." Gwen went to the locker room.

* * *

At least an hour later...

The sun had been setting when Jack arrived at the gym, and now it was nighttime. Damn. I know girls take longer to get ready, but this is ridiculous.

Jack was lying on the rubber mat that had yet to be rolled up. He had fallen asleep and was snoring.

The door opened and Gwen entered the gym. She walked over to Jack and looked down at him.

Jack heard Gwen's footsteps and woke up. "Huh?" There was a bit of drool coming from his mouth.

"Well, that's attractive." Gwen said sarcastically.

Jack stood up and wiped the drool off his sleeve. "What? I'm awake. What?"

"You needed help?" Asked Gwen.

"I need advice." Jack showed Gwen the Omnitrix.

* * *

Soon...

Jack was showing Gwen the message he found from their grandfather. "Oh, don't worry about the Omnitrix, either. I have it, and it's completely safe. They'll never get their hands on it. Say hello to your cousin Gwen for me. Love you. Max out." The message ended.

Gwen realized that there was something wrong with what the message."Grandpa doesn't have the Omnitrix. You do."

"Yeah. He's sending me some kind of message." Jack held the Omnitrix in his hand and looked at it. "I think he wants me to put it on again."

"Jack, just remember that he always said that was your choice. You don't have to do it if you don't want to." Gwen told her cousin.

"I used to love the Omnitrix." Jack closed his eyes and remembered the summer he found the Omnitrix. "It made me feel different, like I wasn't just some average teen from a small, now destroyed town in the middle of Nevada, it made me feel special in a good way."

Gwen could see that her cousin was conflicted on what to do. "You know what?" She asked. "It wasn't the watch that was special. It was you."

Jack turned his head and glanced at Gwen, who sat on the bleachers a few rows up from him. He smiled at her.

"And you earned the chance to have a normal life. You put that thing back on, and that's pretty much it for normal."

Jack was worrying about what to do. "But if grandpa needs my help-"

"He said he didn't." Gwen said, trying to assure Jack that all was fine. "Anyway, remember how much trouble we had getting it off the last time?"

The door opened. In it stood a man wearing a dark grey overcoat and fedora. "The Omnitrix ain't yours." He said with an accent I'm not even going to try to describe. "Give it up!"

"No way!" Jack and Gwen ran for the door. That led the main part of the school. They tried to open the door, but found that it was locked.

The mysterious stranger held out his hand. "Give it to me - now." He demanded.

"Or what?" The man grasped his face and pulled it off, revealing it to be an ID mask. "Or this!" His true form was that of some sort of humanoid sea creature. He had brownish pink skin, yellow eyes with black pupils. He wore armor similar to what Tsukasa wore during his visit to this universe.

Jack had never seen an alien that looked like this before his reaction was: "Oh, that's so creepy." Jack then tried to run, but his feet got shot at by the alien. Jack stumbled back to beside Gwen.

"Don't make me use it on you." The alien warned the two young adults.

"Who's making?" Jack asked.

Gwen, who walked up on several platforms of mana energy said: "Not fish face here, that's for sure."

The alien fired at Gwen. Gwen blocked his shots by swiping her hand. She flung a bolt of mana at the alien, hitting his blaster out of his hand. She then fired a stream of mana at the ground, which curved and flew towards the alien, grabbing onto him.

"You're getting really good at that stuff. No reading required." Jack complimented Gwen.

"Thanks."

Jack turned to the alien. "I want some answers right now. Otherwise -"

While struggling, the alien asked: "Yeah?"

Jack didn't know how to respond to that, so he just thought of something on the fly. "I don't know. I'll overfeed you."

"Do I look like somebody to joke with?"

Jack and Gwen looked at each other. Jack spoke up saying: "Do you want us to be honest?"

The alien let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm a duly deputized agent of the Plumbers, an intergalactic law-enforcement organization."

"I know what they are. My Grandpa Max and my mom June used to be Plumbers."

The alien knew those names. "Max Tennyson? He was helping me on a case when he went missing."

"We're looking for him." Gwen said calmly.

"Wait. He's your grandfather? And June is your mother?" It took the Plumber too long for the connections to be made as to who this nineteen year old was. "You're the legendary Jack Tennyson?"

"Guess so." Jack shrugged. He just brushed off the concept of him being legendary, which will be a rarity for Jack to do in the not too distant future.

"I thought you were just some kid who snatched it from the Rust Bucket." The Plumber admitted he made a mistake. "Guess I owe you an apology." The Plumber then pointed to the mana band that held him aloft. "If you get me out of this thing, maybe we can find your granddad together."

Jack glanced at Gwen and nodded. Gwen lowered the Plumber and released him.

Jack held the Omnitrix in his hand. Gwen saw that Jack was still uncertain as to what to do.

"Are you sure?" Gwen asked, knowing that if Jack put the Omnitrix back on, he would have to live with that decision for the rest of his life.

Jack's eyes narrowed. He took the Omnitrix and placed it upon his left wrist. "I'm sure." Jack turned to face Gwen and the Plumber. "Now, let's go." Jack then realized something. He didn't know this guy's name. "Um, what's your name?"

"Labrid, Magister Labrid." The Plumber responded.

* * *

Later, at a railroad loading yard...

"So, what are we doing here?" Gwen asked as she, Labrid, and Jack watched an currently deserted railroad yard.

"Stakeout." Labrid explained. "According to a tip from your grandfather and intel provided by agent Hopper, the Forever Knights, a group of criminals who -"

Jack knowing who the Forever Knight were, interrupted Labrid. "Trade in alien technology. Yeah, I know. We've run up against them before."

Labrid glared at Jack for interrupting him. "They're supposed to show up here tonight to receive a shipment of illegal alien tech."

"Who do they get it from?" Gwen asked.

Labrid shrugged. "Don't know. Max was going to tell me, but then he disappeared." The sound of an tires on gravel could be heard. "Someone's coming." Labrid placed his hand over the part of the dome on his armor that was in front of his mouth.

Two trucks pulled up, as did a green muscle car, which had been driving along side one of the trucks. It came to a stop in between the other cars. The engine was silenced and the door opened. Who the driver was shocked Gwen and Jack.

"That's Kevin!" Gwen whispered.

Labrid turned to face face Gwen. "You know him?" He asked.

"Kevin Levin" Jack explained. "He's got superpowers. Haven't seen him since after Tsukasa left. I heard he's done some less than legal stuff, but I never imagined he'd be playing the part of the gun runner."

A man wearing a red cloak handed Kevin a padded. The Osmosian opened it up and saw the money inside.

Kevin turned to one of his business partners and said: "Money's here."

The guys who Kevin arrived with unloaded a stack of three crates.

"Well, I don't know much about this 'Kevin', but he's brokering the deal." Labrid said.

"Why not? You said it was illegal."

Kevin handed the case of cash back to the helmet-less hooded Forever Knight. Kevin revealed what was inside the crates, each one had a silver carbine shaped blaster inside it. He then explained what it was he was selling. "As promised, four dozen factory-new laser lances."

Ether-point energy module, antenna-focus emitter it's good for 35 minutes of continuous fire at .06 terawatts. "Is that good?" Kevin targeted a train car and fired at it. It heated up, glowing red. After a few seconds of that, it was destroyed. "You tell me."

Labrid was outraged. "Those lances are level-5 technology!" He shouted, disregarding stealth. "Planet Earth has only level 2!"

"Hey, what happened to the whisper?" A frustrated Jack asked as Labrid got up. The alien drew his blaster and got out his Omnitrix dial shaped badge. He slid down the incline that he and the Tennysons were on, Jack and Gwen following him.

"Hands above your heads, air breathers." Labrid flashed his badge while pointing his gun at both the Forever Knights and Kevin and his co-workers. "By authority of the Plumbers, you're all busted."

All of the guys that had shown up with Kevin removed their faces, which were ID masks. Underneath, they were DNAliens.

"Oh, that's so creepy." Gwen sarcastically said.

"Isn't it?" Jack asked, not knowing that his cousin wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

The DNAliens were howl-grunting as they approached Jack, Gwen, and Labrid.

"Back off!" Labrid fired his blaster continuously, igniting a fire in front of the DNAliens, who cowered in fear, they don't handle the heat that well.[Oh my god, they're the opposite of Cybertronians]

"What now?" Jack asked, now that there was a blaze between the three of them and the cousins of the aliens that attacked him in the Rust Bucket.

"Standoff." Apparently they don't make the Art of War required reading at the Plumber Academy.

"Yeah, I don't think so. The other guys are behind us."

Gwen and Labrid turned around to see Forever Knights getting ready for battle. Based on their armor, there were the same knights that Starscream aligned himself with three years ago.

The Knights walked towards the three of them. To top it all off, the flames that Labrid created with his blaster were starting to die down, which allowed the DNAlien to get closer to them.

Realizing the pinch that they were in, Gwen summed up the kind of time they were having. "We are toast."

"No, we're not." Jack said. He raised up the tower of the Omnitrix. "It's hero time!" He slammed down on the dial, but instead of transforming Jack, the Omnitrix just beeped. The dial was blinking purplish blue.

"Jack!" Gwen was starting to panic.

Jack, not liking this situation any more that Gwen was responded with:"Watch!" And said it with the same frustration as Gwen used, but was mocking Gwen.

As the Forever Knights and DNAliens got closer, Jack was trying frantically to activated the Omnitrix by rotating the dial. It was making the least satisfying of all sound effects, lightly beeping.

"Jack, seriously." Gwen was freaking out.

Jack looked at Gwen as she said the previous sentence. He then said to himself: "This is a really bad time for a reboot."[Weird, those are my exact thoughts about the Ben 10 reboot that's coming out in october of 2016.]

"Uhg. I got nothin." Jack admitted defeat.

"Well then maybe I do." Gwen generated spheres of mana around her hands. She slammed them together at flung the manna bolts at three of the Forever Knights, tossing them back.

Labrid fired at the feet of the DNAliens, which seemed like a good idea on paper, but in practice, that was making them mad.

The Forever Knights took aim at the trio and fired at them. Gwen generated a rectangular shield that blocked the red blast bolts, but the lasers were starting to crack the shield. It took only three blasts before the shield was destroyed and Gwen had to make another.

A DNAlien ran at Jack and Labrid. As it raised up its fist to strike one of them, the heard its howl and got out of the way before it brought its arm down. Jack, not expecting the Omnitrix to not be working ran from the DNAlien as he had nothing to fight it with.

"Come on! Come on!" Jack shouted as he ran. [ beeping ]

One of the DNAliens grunted as it straighten out its back, the tentacles on its mouth opened up, and is spat a glob of goo at Labrid's right hand, covering his gun with a glob of brownish yellow green goo.

As Labrid tried to get the goo off, several DNAliens continued spitting at him until he was encased with the stuff.

The DNAlien that was chasing Jack spat goo at him, but Jack managed to avoid it. He turned to dodge a glob that hit a crate instead of him. He hopped onto a wooden box to avoid a glob that would've stuck him to the ground. He climbed up onto another and jumped off of it, rolling as he landed. He got up and continued to run.

Jack ran behind a tarp and knocked over dozen wood beams that then fell on the DNAlien, crushing it.

Jack tried to turn the Omnitrix dial. I beeped again.

The DNAliens had Labrid surrounded.

Gwen continued to bring up shield to block the blaster fire from the laser lances. However, after she fired two mana bolts at the Forever Knights' laser lances, which destroyed their weapons, she stepped in a puddle of the slime DNAliens spit out. She was stuck. The DNAliens continued to spit goo at her until she was restrained.

The Omnitrix beeped faster and faster. Ot sped up until the beeping stopped. The Omnitrix glowed green and reformed itself into its more watch like design.

"Oh yeah. It's finally back to normal. But shouldn't it- nah. Who'm I to argue with good fortune?" Jack said. He remembered how to use this design of the Omnitrix, even if it was a few years ago. He pressed down the two buttons. A hologram of an alien that would be known as Echo Echo popped up. He rotated the dial and found the one of Jetray(which he had only used once). "I don't recognize any of these guys, although under the circumstances, this one looks pretty good." He had found the hologram of Swampfire, which seemed familiar to him. He then slammed down on the dial.

Jack was transformed for the first time in a few years into his Methodasian form of: "Swampfire!" He smelled something. "Ew, what's that smell?" He sniffed his armpits. "Is that me?" He asked himself.

Swampfire ran over to the group of DNAliens that surrounded a restrained Gwen and Labrid. The two of them grunted as they struggled to get out.

"Get away from my friends!" Swampfire growled as he ran at the DNAliens. He punched one of them to the side as it jumped at him. Another one came from Swampfire's left. He kicked the DNAlien down. A DNAlien spat at Swampfire, but he sent it soaring into the air with a uppercut.

The remaining DNAliens saw that their buddies were being beaten and ran for the truck that they arrived in. They tried to drive away, but they made the mistake of driving in Swampfire's direction. The plant based alien ripped a metal post out of the ground and swung it at the passing truck, denting it and knocking it over.

Swampfire was having a blast. "I forgot how much fun this is." A laser bolt hit him, but instead of hurting him, Swampfire just laughed. "Cut it out. That tickles." He continued to be shot at by the Forever Knights until one of them aimed at his arm. That cut his arm clean off. "Hey!" Swampfire shouted.

Labrid and Gwen both gasped at Jack's sudden mutilation. However, all threat of being dismembered in this form as rendered moot as a tendril grew out of the severed arm and reattached itself. "You guys are in so much trouble." Swampfire clenched his fist.

Swampfire ran at the Forever Knights. He punched one of them into the side of at train car. He then punched another one to the side.

He was going to beat the rest of them, but Kevin jumped in front of him.

"Hey, Darby." Kevin said. That set of ginger alarms in Jack's head.

"What do you- wait. Kevin, you never called me Darby before. What's gotten into you? You're working with these aliens, one of which attacked me at my grandpa's RV, and you're selling weapons to the Forever Knights."

"Who says I'm Kevin?" 'Kevin removed his face, revealing that it was an ID mask. Underneath it was Vince. "Consider this payback for sending me into the null void."

"You did that to yourself."

"And for ruining my deal today."

"Hey, that's on Labrid."

"I'm thinking I want revenge." Vince turned into his massive mutated form. "The good news is, that even though your lame friend turned me back to normal, that was only temporary, now I can be Vince 11 whenever I want. Meaning I got more than enough power to take it."

"Okay. That's new."

Vince punched his Diamondhead fist right through Swampfire. However, he got his fist stuck. Swampfire took advantage of this and slammed his hands on Vince's head, making him groan in pain. He then kicked Vince away from him. The bit in his chest that was punched out grew back.

The Forever Knights had finished loading up the laser lances and had paid the DNAliens. They closed up the rear of the truck. Both parties used the fight between Swampfire and Vince as their opportunity to escape.

Vince flung a boxcar at Swampfire, who didn't have enough time to react. He was crushed by it. But Swampfire was immune to physical damage.

"And that's what happens when you mess with me." Vince said as he approached the boxcar.

Swampfire rose up from the ground behind Vince, surprising him.

"Hey! What?" Vince was caught off guard.

"Peekaboo!" Swampfire punched Vince, sending him back. The Omnitrix mutant was unsteady on his feet. He recovered and grabbed the boxcar that he was leaning up against. He was going to toss it at Swampfire, but it blasted apart by twin streams of flame that he fired from hole in his palms.

Vince groaned before he reverted back to his human state. He then passed out.

* * *

Later...

"Thanks for coming Sierra." Jack said to the redhead that he had a crush on at one point. She was wearing armor similar to Labrid's but her's had nothing covering her head.

"Don't mention it. I've been looking for Vince since he got out of the Null Void two years ago."

"And why were you?" Gwen asked, confused as to how Sierra, a girl her cousin had a crush on a few years ago knew about this.

"I joined up in the Plumbers back in the summer of 2010."

"But I thought-"

"Just because the Plumbers aren't currently stationed on a planet, it doesn't mean we're not accepting new recruits." Labrid explained. "Sierra would've been assigned to Optimus and his squad, but seeing as you dealt with Megatron, we decided to let Fowler stay, while we get some of our boys to do a bit of digging."

Gwen saw that Vince, who had handcuffs that glowed blue, was starting to come to. "Guys, Vince."

Vince groaned as he opened his eyes to see Jack, Gwen, Labrid, and Sierra looking down at him. He tried to assume his mutated form, but he found he couldn't he saw the cuffs that were on his wrists.

"Energy cuffs - you can't escape." Labrid explained. "Cancel out all biological abilities."

"You still got some of that stuff in your hair." Jack said to Gwen.

Gwen looked in her hair and saw nothing.

Sierra looked at Gwen with a shocked expression. "Other side." She said.

Gwen felt the back of her head. She felt something sticky. "Ew!" Gwen saw the massive amount of slime that was still on her.

"Time we had a talk, tough guy." Labrid said, holding up one of the laser lances. "These weapons run on ether-point energy cells, a dangerous technology way too advanced for humans."

"They shouldn't even be on this planet." Sierra continued.

"So? How's that my problem?"

"While we were fighting, the Forever Knights got away with a crate full of them." Jack explained, pointing to the direction the Forever Knights drove off in.

"You set up the deal. You're going to tell me where they are."

"Kevin, people could be hurt." Sierra said tenderly to Vince, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You're in a lot of trouble, son." Labrid said. "I'm giving you a chance to help yourself here."

Vince scoffed. "It's not like I set the deel up."

"Say what now?" Jack was confused.

"I found this guy named Kevin Levin. Figure I make a few bucks impersonating him and selling these."

"Where is Kevin?"

"Last I checked, in the trunk."

"So we can add kidnapping to your list of charges. When this is done, we're going to lock you away for a long time."

Sierra hadn't joined the Plumbers to lock people away, she joined to make a difference, and what Labrid was proposing was the exact opposite of what she had intended. "Magister, Vince isn't bad, per say, he's just, troubled. I've known Vince longer than any of us."

"Ahem." Jack got Sierra's attention.

"Besides Jack." She continued. "Vince came from a broken household. His parents never had time for him."

"What're you asking?" Labrid was confused.

"All I'm saying is just let me try to get him to behave." She suggested. "I promise that in less than a year, I'll get him to the point where the worst he's capable of is failing to yield."

"Fine. You have four months."

"I could do it in two." Sierra boasted. "Everything I do, I do it quickly."

"Okay, but what about Kevin?" Gwen asked. She turned to Jack, but found that he was over by Kevin's muscle car. He opened up the trunk and found a bound and gagged Kevin who had energy cuffs on. A blindfold covered his eyes.

Jack removed the gag.

"Who's that! Get me out of here!" Kevin shouted.

"It's definitely him."

"Tennyson? Is that you?"

Jack removed the blindfold, allowing Kevin to see him.

"Took you long enough."

"I didn't even know you were kidnapped." Jack deactivated the energy cuffs and untied Kevin's legs.

"Kevin!" Gwen ran up to the osmosian. "What were you thinking selling weapons to the Forever Knights?!"

"Good to see you too." Kevin said sarcastically. "I wasn't going to sell them the real thing, I was just going to sell them a bunch of fakes."

"What?" Sierra asked as she, the handcuffed Vince, Labrid, and Jack approached Kevin's car.

"Ever since we took down the Forever King, I've been made a few deals with the Forever Knights, all of them ended badly for the people they used the stuff I sold them on." He explained. "I decided to undermine them in my own way, but while also profiting." Kevin then pointed at Vince. "But then your psychotic monster here jumped me and tossed me in the back of my car. Sold the Forever Knights the real stuff."

"So you'll help us?" Gwen asked.

"You don't have to convince me." Kevin said. "Those guys ran off before I got paid. I'm happy to help find those deadbeats."

"What about me?" Vince asked. Sierra grabbed Vince's ear. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"You're coming home with me." Sierra said. "We have a lot of work to do." She then stared at Vince with eyes filled with pure anger. "And if you dare try to take advantage of me, I will blow your goddamn brains out. Do I make myself clear?"

Vince gulped. "Crystal."

"Good." She then turned to Jack. "Bye Jack!"

* * *

Later...

Kevin's car was driving down an open road. Nobody was on it but him, and his three passengers of course.

"I still think I should drive." Labrid suggested.

Kevin, being possessive of his ride responded with: "Nobody drives the car but me."

"You were telling us about the aliens." Gwen said to Labrid, wanting an explanation as to what it was that they fought."

"I don't know anything about the ones we fought today." Labrid responded. "Never met that kind before."

Jack activated the Omnitrix and looked through the aliens that he had unlocked. "I don't see them in here - not that I know how to work this thing anymore." He found that he had only ten aliens unlocked; most of them were ones that he had used when he was sixteen, but had forgotten about them, those were Swampfire, Chromastone, Humungousaur, Spidermonkey, Goop, Jetray, Big Chill, and three that he hadn't used before, Brainstorm, Echo Echo, and Alien X. Basicly, Jack had some work to do in term of learning how to use his new alien forms.

"Maybe after you get your license, pee-wee." Kevin mocked in a non antagonistic way.

"Who won that fight between me and Vince? Oh, I remember - me." Jack responded.

"There's been a lot of alien activity on Earth lately." Labrid brought up the presence of the DNAliens. "Don't know why. However, your grandfather thought maybe the weapons deal would lead us to whatever's causing all the interest. Now he's missing."

"Knowing Grandpa Max, he's probably at a restaurant enjoying a roasted cockroach salad." Gwen said, about to strike a nerve with Jack. "It's a wonder that all that weird food didn't kill him." And with that, she struck nerve.

"He's not dead!" Jack, who hadn't seen Max as much as Gwen did, shouted. "Stop making jokes about him!"

The tires screeched as Kevin slammed on the brakes. "Don't talk to her like that." Kevin pointed an accusing finger at Jack.

"I'll talk to her anyway I -" Jack realized that we was the bad guy in this scenario. His expression of anger turned to one of sadness and depression. "You're right. I'm sorry, Gwen." He apologized.

"I know you're worried about grandpa." Gwen knew why Jack was so quick to anger.

"I just wish he were here." Jack hung his head. "He would know what to do. He always knows what to do."

Labrid knew there were more important things to worry about. He responded to Jack's sorrow of Max not being here as follows: "Well, he ain't. You're the one with the Omnitrix." He said. "You're going to have to figure out how to get things done on your own."

Kevin slammed on the gas pedal. His muscle car sped down the highway.

* * *

Later...

As they drove down the highway, a castle came into view. Wait, what?

"This is it." Kevin said, stating the obvious.

"Subtle - nobody would think to look for Knights in here." Jack said with high levels of sarcasm.

"You didn't." Kevin spat semi aggressively.

"How do we get in?" Labrid asked.

Jack came up with a plan. "Gwen?"

* * *

Soon...

Gwen had gotten out of the car, as did the others. Gwen's hands glowed with energy. She fired a beam at the drawbridge and pulled it down, groaning due to the effort that the act required.

Once it was down, the four of them entered the out of place castle.

It was dark inside, and it seemed that nobody was home. Gwen used her mana powers to make a lantern of sorts to provide light.

As they walked down the main hall, Kevin looked at the artefacts that the inhabitants of this castle had collected.

"There's no one here." Gwen said. "You sure this is the right place?"

"There's a hidden door. Keep looking." Kevin saw several pieces of jewelry that caught his eye. He went over to them and pocketed a few of them.

Jack went over to Kevin and said with a mocking tone: "Maybe you should have brought a shopping cart."

Kevin disregarded what Jack said and moved on.

Jack turned his attention to a few suits of armor, which to Jack looked cool, but the lack of light made them seem rather creepy. "I don't like the looks of this." Jack backed up into a suit of armor. He bumped into it and gasped. He had knocked it over. "Aah!" He gasped as the suit came falling down, the blade of the sword that the armor held heading right for him. He got out of the way, but the falling armor made a ton of noise.

"Come on, man! What are you doing?" A frustrated Kevin asked.

"Sorry." Jack had his back turned to a dragon that rose its head up. "Guess I'm just a little-" JAck saw the terrified expressions on his friends' faces. He turned around and saw the dragon. "Paranoid!" He shouted.

The dragon growled at them. Right now, Jack was having flashbacks to his encounter with the Predacon.

To be continued...

* * *

A.N. The new story has started. FWI, TFPOT The Next is gonna be shorter than Transformers Power of Ten(less than 40 chapters as opposed to 48).

And yes, the 'There'll be no going back' line that was said to Jack offscreen was intentional. When Jack got the Omnitrix removed by Azmuth, Paradox was there and told told him this: "Enjoy your normal life while you can Jackson, but the next time you wear the Omnitrix, what you do with the device shall define you for the rest of your life." And Paradox never kids around when it comes to destiny. He might crack a few jokes, but he never treats events that are certainly going to happen lightly.

And I know the whole off screen exchange between Jack and Paradox about the Omnitrix may come off as a bit of Paradox spoiling the future for Jack, but it's not. It's Paradox telling Jack to only put the Omnitrix back on when he absolutely has to. It's also about living with the consequences of your actions, which one could argue was a major theme in TFP, almost every episode affected the ones that came after it, there were very few, if any episodes that existed in a vacuum. The idea about living with consequences is also a part of growing up, which although Jack had dealt with that previously, this is where things change. He has a responsibility to save the world now. And in the coming battles, if he fails, millions, if not billions of people are going to die. The fate of not just the Earth, or Cybertron, but the entire galaxy will be resting on the shoulders of a nineteen year old human.

So when Jack starts acting like, well, as Tsukasa described, a discount Miko, he's kinda earned the right to act the way he will. He grew up as the only child in a single parent household, had to work at a dead end job to help his mom make ends meet, got caught up in an alien civil war on accident, and (this version of him) probably has had the following nightmares: his friends being eaten alive by scraplets, being possessed by Ghostfreak, Vilgax winning, Megatron winning(again), losing Arcee, his mom being killed by Airachnid, ones that are about Airachnid, him accidently destroying the Universe, losing the 'bots(as in they're dead, not they've gone home), and probably more. I mean come on, to top it all off, Jack's socially awkward(granted, he didn't embarrass himself in front of Julie, in fact Arcee mentioned the fact that Jack had gotten better at talking to girls). Basicly, Jack didn't have much support growing up. Sure, his mother loved him to the point where even when he's nineteen, Jack's still her little boy. But even when he's bragging about how he saved the whole entire universe, he never loses sight of what's important. Protecting people and saving the day. This is going to be a turning point for not just the history of this universe, but in Jack's life overall, much how at about this age, we begin to discover our true callings in life, find our way if you will.

But I bet you don't want to talk about maturation. You want to know what the 'bots have been up to over the past three years? Yeah, I think I owe you guys an explanation about that. Well, the Autobots stuck around because once again, they were stuck on Earth, and remember how Team Prime vs Team Nadir ended? Well, if you don't, the 'cons were forced to retreat after Jack(as Way Big) tossed the Nemesis as far as he could, so it's been three years since the the cons were scared off. So basicly, the 'bots have been taking it easy during this time of peace. And yes, Jack is still in highschool. As to why, he's one of those kids who didn't start going to school until he was a bit older than the other kids. BTW, in my highschool, there are seniors who are twenty. But as for how old Jack was when he started high school, he was sixteen as a freshman(which might not be correct, but we're never told what grades the kids are in, that or we're told, but not out right).

The collectibles for the riders that I made up(Marvel, Kingryu, and Ri-xpress) are all based on sentai collectables. Rider Keys are obviously based on Ranger Keys, Rider Cells are based on Zyudenchi, and Express Engines are based on the Ressha from Toqger. The riders are based on the red rangers from those series. Marvel is based on Marvelous(since in this universe, Kamen Rider Marvel was the 40th show), Kingryu is a portmanteau of Diago(king) and dragon(ryu), Kingryu was dinosaur based, which is a rider theme that we've never had as the main motif. Ri-xpress is a combination of Right(the leader of the Toqgers) and Express(the english word for Ressha). It was a train themed rider much like Den-O, but that show in contrast to Toqger and Den-O's light heartedness, Ri-express was fairly dark, but not as much as Gaim will be, since Gaim hasn't premiered yet.

Also, a bit of more on my style of writing. In my fanfictions, I leave two kinds of notes, (ones in parentheses), and [another in brackets]. Notes in parentheses represent comments made by the audience and The Storyteller. Their comments are things like logic errors. Notes in brackets are comments that I make as a writer, such as things that would break the fourth wall if the narrator were to mention. Things such as knowledge of things like similar voice actors, knowledge of other works on , other transformers series, bits of trivia, and other stuff like that. It's how I do my bits of obvious foreshadowing. Sometimes I put emphasis on certain words, like 'Surprise' and 'Drive' at the end of Jack vs Malware, other time, I insert things like this: [Me: *Laughing manically internally* *Smiling mischievously intensifies*]


	3. 2 Jack 10 Returns part 2

Where we left off...

Jack, Gwen, Kevin, and Labrid were running from the dragon that they found in the Forever Knights' castle.

The dragon roared before slamming its front feet on the ground, cracking the floor. They managed to get into a room that the dragon couldn't get into, for the moment at least.

Labrid gasped when he and the others got cornered by a group of Forever Knights wielding laser lances. One of them pointed a sword at them.

"Nobody move." The sword wielding knight said. "Hands above your head!"

"Make me." Kevin touched a stone pillar and took on the properties of it. With a bit of effort on his part, he managed to lift up the floor. He then slammed it back down as if it were a bed sheet. The floor made waves that tossed around the knights.

More knights came from another room. They took aim at the group and fired their laser lances. Gwen brought up a barrier that she used to block some of their blasts. She made another barrier as her first one started to crack. Shattering the first shield, she grabbed Labrid's laser pistol and levitated it. She fired at the knights, taking them out one by one.

Jack was going to activated the Omnitrix and fight the Forever Knights, but he heard the growling of the dragon. "Whoops."

The Dragon broke into the room where the gun fight was going on.

Jack ran at the dragon. He activated the Omnitrix and slammed down on the first hologram that showed up, which was a Sonarian that he would call Echo Echo.

"Echo Echo!" The Sonarian announced. He split himself into five duplicates, but unlike Ditto, Echo Echo and his clones weren't linked in any way. The Echo Echos jumped at the Dragon, climbing on his face. "Got him!" They repeated once each. They somehow managed to knock over the dragon that was already T-rex sized when compared to Jack, but as Echo Echo, the Dragon was at least twice as Big.

In the cloud of dust that was thrown up by the falling dragon, Kevin managed to grab two of the knights. He held one in each of his hands.

One of the knights knew how this was going to end. "Oh, you're not gonna -"

"Yeah, I am." Kevin replied with a smirk. He slammed their helmets together, knocking them out. Kevin dodge several blaster bolts before three knights tried to gang up on him, but he tossed them to the side. He ran at a group of knights that were lined up. He punched them away. One of the knights stood behind Kevin and was about to fire at him.

As Gwen fired bolts of mana, labrid saw this and shouted: "Kevin!" He took aim at that knight, shooting him, which either knocked him out or killed him.

Regardless, the knight of unknown consciousness status managed to pull the trigger, causing a shoot the laser lance of one his comrades. That knight was knocked against a wall, but was still conscious. He glanced to his right and saw his laser lance, but it was sparking. Being an idiot, he picked it up and was going to use it to fight.

"Don't do it! It's busted!" The Magister warned.

When the Knight pulled the trigger, an orb of red energy built up around him. "Aah!" He howled in pain as he was ripped apart on the atomic level.

"Hit the deck!" Labrid shouted. He jumped at Kevin, tackling him and getting him to a safe distance. All that was left of the knight was a twenty foot wide crater. "That's why level-5 technology is illegal on Earth. Humans aren't ready for it." He explained.

"I owe you one." Kevin said as he stood back up.

"Yeah, you do." Labrid said before he and Kevin ran at the surviving Forever Knights, who were starting to overpower Gwen. They lifted up two of the knights and tossed them away.

Gwen fired a mana bolt at one of the knights. As two more ran at her. She jumped up and generated a platform that she used to get above them. She then jumped off the platform and came down, kicking the knights' helmets together, knocking them out. The then grabbed one of the knights with a beam of mana energy and slammed him into two others. As four more knights ran at her, Gwen created a bubble around her that she expanded, knocking the knights away. She then fired one more bolt to deal with the last stragglers.

The dragon was trying to shake the Echo Echos off of him. "Got him! Got him!" The dragon then tossed the three that were on his head off. "Don't got him!" Those three Echo Echos hit the wall. There were still three holding onto the dragon's tail. Flung off, they hit a wall before falling to the stone floor. Two of them ran up to the dragon, while one of them stood in place, inhaled and unleashed his signature attack, a sonic screech that was similar to the one Jack's Loboan form uses, but was a lot quieter, considering the one a Loboan uses is a howl. However, it was more destructive, as it caused the very foundation of the castle to shake and rumble. As all six Echo Echos directed their attacks at the dragon, Gwen, Labrid, and Kevin were all unintentionally affected by the attack. They were covering their ears, but even if they didn't they would suffer at worst, a ringing that would last at least half an hour. Eventually, the dragon fell apart, revealing it to be robotic. Eventually, the chunks began to crack then explode.

The Echo Echos merged back into one as the others approached him.

"You could warn somebody when you're gonna do that." Kevin groan in frustration.

Echo Echo looked behind him to see Gwen with her hands on her hips in an angered manner. "Seriously." Gwen said. "I've got earplugs in my purse."

"Sorry." Echo Echo apologized. He hung his head like a child who did something wrong.

Labrid meanwhile had piled up all the laser lances. He stood next the pile after tossing a couple of them on it.

"That's all of them." He said. "If you wouldn't mind."

Echo Echo inhaled. Gwen and Kevin covered their ears. The silicon alien unleashed a concentrated sonic piuse at the pile of illegal weapons. Seconds later, they exploded, but something went wrong.

Labrid's suit started to leak. The liquid that dripped out evaporated the second it hit the cold stone floor.

Echo Echo expressed his concern. "Hey, are you okay? There's-" Through sheer will power, Jack reverted back into a human. "-water leaking out of your suit."

Labrid held his hand up to the crack in his armor that showed something blue on the inside.

"That's not water." Then what is it?[Oh. Oh god. It's blood. This show got away with a character bleeding to death by having the blood blue and evaporating quickly.]

Labrid Groaned as he fell to his knees.

"You alright, man?" Kevin asked.

Labrid looked up a Jack. "Jack, listen to me." He said.

"I got a tire-patch kit in the car. Maybe we could -"

"No time for that." Labrid knew it was his time. He didn't try to stay alive, only to hold on for just a bit longer. "There's nothing anyone can do."

Gwen placed her hand on Labrid's shoulder as he started to shrivel up. "Let us help you."

"If you want to help me, finish the job." He explained. "You have to find out where the level-5 tech is coming from."

"I will." Jack was going to do exactly that.

With a voice that sounded dryer than before, Labrid said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg, kid." He explained. "Your grandpa was on the trail of something big - an alien conspiracy with Earth in the middle." He groaned. "He was working undercover. If you crack this case, maybe you can find Max and save both your planet, and your friends'."

Despite being nineteen, Jack was still unsure of what he could do. "I can't do it without grandpa. I don't know how."

Labrid placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "You- you are Jack Tennyson. You can do anything." With his final words spoken, Labrid closed his eyes and in a cloud of steam, he shoved off his mortal coil. His body vaporized, all that was left was his empty suit. It fell to the ground, letting off a bang.

"No!" Gwen hugged Kevin in a helpless manner.

A moment of silence was observed for the fallen Plumber.

Jack broke the somber silence. "I'm gonna need help."

"You know I'm here for you." Gwen said.

"Kevin," Jack knew that he would need Kevin's help as well. "I know there's no money in this, and that you have more important things to do, but-"

Kevin removed the Omnitrix shaped badge that was on the empty suit's belt. "I'm in.

* * *

Later...

Kevin sat in the driver's seat of his car. Next to him was Jack. Gwen was outside of the car, floating above the ground.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Jack shouted after peering his head out of the opened window.

"No, I've never done this before." Gwen said while one of the laser lances rotated around in the air wildly. "But in theory I should be able to trace the vibrations from this laser lance back to the people who used to own it." She said to herself.

Jack then realized that something was up. "I thought I destroyed all those things."

"I kept one as a souvenir. Lucky, huh?" Kevin said.

Jack raised his eyebrow to express his mild frustration.

The laser lance stopped spinning and pointed west. It then proceeded to head in that direction.

"Hey, it's working." Gwen said as she floated in the direction the laser lance was going. "Follow me!" She shouted.

"I'll follow you anywhere." Kevin said as he followed Gwen. He would soon come to regret the wording of what he said when the direction that Gwen was going went down hill, and off road. "Except there! Come on, Gwen! Paint job!" Kevin shouted, sticking his head out of the side of his car.

* * *

Soon...

They had reached their destination, the entrance to a mine. It was being guarded by a human who wielded a twelve gauge shotgun. But is it ever that simple?

"This is it - down that mine shaft." Gwen said as she and Jack took cover.

"We'll have to get past the -" The guard groaned as Kevin knocked him out.

Jack and Gwen ran over to Kevin. "You hit him too hard!" Gwen bemoaned.

"Not him" Kevin removed the face of the guard to reveal that it was an ID mask. "it!"

Kevin handed Jack the mask. "It's like the mask the aliens at the train station were wearing." Gwen said.

"It's an ID mask. Arcee uses this all the time. Which means we're getting warmer." Jack and the other walked into the lift. He closed the gate and pressed the green button. The lift when down deep into the mine.

Kevin complained about the lack of light. "Not much to see down here."

Gwen gasped as the trio saw something big. "Don't think so?" Jack said. What they saw was a huge ship, not as big as the Nemesis mind you, but it was large in its own right. It looked like the combination of a classic rocket ship and the tower of a castle. But that wasn't all. Below the main part of the ship was a section that had dozens of DNAliens moving stuff into it.

"Big." Kevin said, apparently forgetting how big the- oh wait. At this point in time, he's never seen the Nemesis up close.

"It's the mother ship." Jack was both right and wrong about what this ship was. "Don't you get it? Grandpa Max has to be in there." Jack reasoned.

"So how do we get in?"

Jack took the ID mask out of his pocket. "How's this work again?" He asked.

Kevin explained how the ID mask worked. "Photonic displacement. You can set it to make you look like whatever you want."

Jack had a smirk on his face. He placed the ID mask on. His appearance changed to that of a DNAlien. He stood a foot above Kevin's head.

"How do I look?" The now DNAlien looking Jack asked.

"About the same taller."

Gwen brought over what looked like a minecart that could hover. "Get in." She said.

"Why?" Kevin asked. He honestly expected to get a reply out of Gwen, who just stared at him with a stern expression.

* * *

Soon...

Jack was making his way into the ship he was controlling the hovering minecart, which Gwen and Kevin were hiding in. However, he wasn't playing it cool. He was risking his cover by trying to make small talk.

"Hey, how's it going? What's up? I owe you a call." He said to various DNAliens who paid him little to no mind.

"End of the line." Jack said as the cart came to a stop and lowered to the ground. Kevin and Gwen stood up, their first reaction was to the temperature.

"Aah It's freezing in here." Kevin said, shivering as he did so. "'I owe you a call'?" He criticized what Jack had said.

"Don't be such a baby." Gwen said to Kevin. "What's next?"

"See if you can find out where grandpa is." Jack said after removing the ID mask. He was shivering a bit. "It is cold, though. I'll give you that."

"Okay, let me try something." Gwen. Her eyes glowed pink as her hair floated around as if she were floating in the near gravity-less void of space. She then telepathically searched the rooms of the entire ship for Max, but found nothing. "I'm sorry, Jack. Grandpa was here, maybe a couple of weeks ago, but he's not here now."

"So, now what? We just get out of here, right?" Kevin asked.

"Wrong." Jack responded. "When I was little, Grandpa Max taught me to ride my bike." Jack remembered one of the few times he remembered seeing his grandfather when he was a kid. "He ran alongside me, holding me up while I pedaled. By the time I realized he had let go, I'd already been riding by myself for a long time." Jack turned and headed down the hall. "Training wheels off, guys. We're gonna finish the mission."

* * *

In a bit...

A circular shaped door opened as they stepped into a room that had what resembled giant purple plant cells along the walls and a red cylinder that resembled a lava lamp in the center supported by several rings that were held up by the platforms that were along the walls.

Kevin touched a door, his arm taking on the properties of the material. He punched the door and ripped it open. There two longest walls were lined with laser lances.

"Weapons room." Gwen said.

Kevin clarified. "Yep."

Gwen raised her hands. Bolts of mana lightning filled the room, causing the laser lances to explode.

"A little louder, why don't you?" A sarcastic Jack complained.

"No big deal." Kevin said. "We'll be out of here before they even -" Kevin stopped mid sentence when the strange sounds that the DNAliens said was heard.

Jack and Kevin looked over their shoulders to see a DNAlien on one of the upper platforms. It was pointing at them and letting out a series of grunts as he did so. About ten others joined it.

"You were saying?"

Two of the DNAliens hacked up globs of goo and spat them at the trio. Gwen brought up a shield and used it to block them. As more of the DNAliens continued to spit goo at them, Gwen made the shield larger. "How about we fight them instead of each other?" She suggested.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected one of the aliens that he recognized.

He was transformed into... "Humungousaur! Yes!" The Vaxasaurian turned his attention to the DNAliens. "Guess what time it is?" When he didn't get a response, he gave the mooks the answer. "It's hero time!" Humungousaur jumped over the shield and body slammed the group of DNAliens, but most of them scattered before he landed. He roared as he ran after the others.

"Save some for me." Kevin said after turning his other arm into steel. "Those creeps cost me a major payday." After tying up one of the DNAliens with bands of manna, Gwen turned her attention towards Kevin after hearing what he said. "Also because they're evil, and we're against that."

Kevin stood up and punched the head off of one of the DNAliens. Whoops. Kevin then punched another one, this time knocking it over. When he ran at the group of DNAliens, he delivered an uppercut to two of them, sending those two DNAliens over his head and onto the ground where the lay unconscious.

Gwen fired mana bolts at all of the DNAliens that ran at her, knocking each one out with one shot.

As Humungousaur fought the DNAliens, a group of them tackled him and knocked him down. Another one spat at his wrist in an attempt to hold his arm down. "I can't believe you just did that." He clenched his fist and moved his arm, pulling it up. He didn't break the goo, but he did tear up a chunk of the floor that was attached to his arm. He then roared again before hitting another one of the DNAliens with his tail. Charging at the DNAliens, he ran at them, knocking them away. He then rammed one into the wall, KOing it and breaking the stone slab that was on his wrist.

Soon after that, Kevin and Gwen had finished off the rest of the DNAliens.

"We kicked butt!" Kevin proudly proclaimed.

"So far, but there could be hundreds of these guys in here." Humungousaur said, bringing up a valid point.

"We destroyed the weapons, why not just leave?" Gwen suggested.

"Good call. Let's - oh, man." Humungousaur saw a Highbreed enter the room.

"What are you creatures doing on my ship?" The Highbreed demanded. When he didn't get a response, he was furious. "I do not repeat myself to lower life-forms." He contradicted himself. "What are you doing on my ship?"

"Did you just call me a lower life-form?" An insulted Kevin asked.

"I'm pretty sure he did." Humungousaur nodded.

"And while he may have a point, it's rude to say so." Gwen continued.

"You vermin would dare mock a highbreed commander?!" The Highbreed was furious.

"I'd mock anybody who uses the word 'mock'." Humungousaur said.

Kevin ran at the Highbreed. The massive white alien swung his arm. Kevin ducked to dodge it, but when he got up and tried to punch the Highbreed, it struck him, sending the twenty year old flying into the wall.

"Kevin!" Gwen shouted. When the Highbreed jumped over her and Humungousaur, it ran at Kevin. Gwen used her powers to stop the highbreed by grabbing it's arms, but it was too strong. The highbreed saw that he was being restrained. He swung his restrained hands, flinging Gwen into a wall.

Kevin got up and ran to help Gwen up. "Did he hurt you?" He asked.

"No."

"Well, I'm gonna hurt him." Kevin made his fists larger, making them resemble boxing gloves.

Humungousaur ran over to get between Kevin and the Highbreed to prevent Kevin from getting himself killed. "He's too strong. I'll hold him off. You guys get outside."

"I'm not leaving you to fight that thing by yourself." Gwen said, refusing to listen to Jack.

"No time to argue. Kevin, get her out of here!"

Kevin grabbed Gwen and ran. "You heard the man."

"Let me go!" Gwen shouted.

"As soon as we're off the ship." Kevin responded.

When Kevin and Gwen exited the room, only Humungousaur and the Highbreed remained.

"Maggot! You would face me alone?"

"Uh-huh!" Humungousaur charged at the Highbreed. The two titans clashed.

"Vermin!" The Highbreed delivered a wide strike and struck Humungousaur, who was sent flying into a wall.

"Whoa!" Humungousaur was honestly impressed with how tough this alien was. When the Highbreed was about to punch Humungousaur, he dodged the blow.

"Filthy creature! Hold still!" The Highbreed groaned furiously as the Vaxasaurian continued to dodge his punches.

"Why would I do that?" Humungousaur then managed to get away, but he was caught by the Highbreed, who grabbed onto his tail and swung him, striking him against the walls. When the slamming stopped, the Highbreed dragged Humungousaur towards him and grabbed him by the back of the neck.

"You've ruined everything by discovering this location." The Highbreed groaned. "You've set our plans back months!" He tossed Humungousaur into a computer, destroying it. The Highbreed walked over to the Vaxasaurian and grabbed his head. Looking eye to eye, the Highbreed said: "Inferior scum, I have to move my ship, find a new hiding place, and have to sterilize the area."

"Sterilize?" Humungousaur didn't like the sound of that.

"Destroy all life within five miles of here." The Highbreed clarified. "No witnesses will live to tell the tale."

"You can't!" Humungousaur shouted, but got his throat grabbed by the Highbreed who now held him up.

"I can, and I will."

"Let me go!" Humungousaur said as he struggled to break the grip of the Highbreed. Unable to get away, he decided to do something a kid would do and bite the hand of his enemy.

"Aah!" The Highbreed yelled. "Filth!" The Highbreed dropped Humungousaur. "You've infected me!" He grabbed Humungousaur's sides and tossed him with what might've not even been all his might. "Get off my ship!"

Humungousaur was soaring. He was going to crash, but was caught by Gwen, who broght him down to the ground gently. He fell to his feet. Looking up, Humungousaur saw Kevin and Gwen.

"Guess you showed him." Kevin said.

"He's going to destroy the town."

"How?" Asked Gwen.

"I don't know, but he's going to do it now unless I stop him."

The lights on the side of the ship glowed red, each one turning on one at a time. There was a blast, which Gwen shielded the group from. When the blast cleared and the rocket in the air, Gwen lowered the shield. Humungousaur then grew to his full size.

"You've got yourself a big problem!" He shouted as he ran after the slowly ascending ship. He manage to grab onto the side of the ship as it emerged from below the surface of the earth. Humungousaur adjusted his grip as the booster engine cut out.

As the ship flew towards a nearby town, her DNAlien crew began to prepare to fire the main cannon.

The barrel of the ship telescoped out. Humungousaur knew what was next. The ship fired its laser at the city, hitting a parking lot and tore it up. The ship then proceeded to move towards a hospital.

"No!" Humungousaur started punching the ship in an attempt to at least stop the ship's beam. He managed to punch a hole in the ship. Without wasting any time, Humungousaur ripped out a series of wires that caused the beam on the Highbreed ship to turn off.

Humungousaur was beginning to lose his grip on the side of the ship. He was slipping off.

Kevin and Gwen had made their way to top of the crater that the Highbreed base was located in. They saw that the ship was beginning to crash, and that Humungousaur was still holding onto it.

"Oh! Come on! Come on! Come on!" He yelled as his hands slid off. He fell and when he hit the ground, a massive crater was formed where he landed. He reverted back into Jack when the dust cleared.

"Not fun." Jack groaned as he lay in the bottom of the hole that he made. His blue jacket was torn in more than a few places.

The Highbreed ship crashed. Seconds after that, Gwen and Kevin ran to the Humungousaur sized hole that Jack had made in the ground. Jack was crouched over, checking his injuries. His leg had a few cuts, was skinned, and had a bruise.

Jack used a piece of his torn jacket to cover up the wounds. He looked up and saw his friend running towards him. "How'd you find me?"

"Looked for the front end of the big trench you dug with your face." Kevin said synically.

Gwen however was more caring. "You okay?" She asked.

"Humungousaur skinned his knee, and it was still skinned when I turned back." Jack responded.

"So what happens now?" Kevin asked.

"We keep looking for Grandpa Max." Jack said. He then explained what he meant. "Guess the best way to do that is to solve the case he was working on."

"Easy as pie." Gwen said, smiling as she did so. "Anybody know how to make a pie?"

"Listen. Kevin, I know that the two of us barely know each other, but I just wanted to say thanks. We wouldn't have made it without you." Jack held out his hand.

"You still won't make it without me." Kevin said. Jack frowned and lowered his hand.

"Are you saying you want to help us?" A confused Gwen asked.

"I'm saying I made somebody a promise. I'm seeing this through to the end." Kevin explained.

"Then you can shake hands, right?" Jack asked. He held out his hand. Gwen placed hers atop her cousin's. Jack looked at Kevin. He smiled then nodded. Kevin smiled before placing his hand on Kevin's "It's hero time!" Jack said. He looked at his torn jacket. "Just let me get a new jacket first.

* * *

Where we began the last chapter...

A DNAlien was walking towards the circular screen. The image of a highbreed appeared.

"You may speak to me, half-breed vermin."

"The news isn't good." The DNAliens said. "Max Tennyson continues to evade us."

"This is unacceptable, insect!" The Highbreed groaned.

"If I may, master, the bad news doesn't stop there." The DNAlien explained. "A supply ship was destroyed in an altercation with Jack Tennyson. Master, witnesses say he has the Omnitrix."

The Highbreed knew what that meant. "Jack Ten is back." He groaned before responding. "But he has no idea what he's up against this time. No idea at all!"

* * *

The next day, Autobot base...

Jack had bought a new jacket to replace the one that'd been ruined by the fight last night. It was the same shade of green as the Omnitrix. Using red thread, Jack began sewing a red autobot insignia onto Jacket next to the white '1' that he sewed on.

Miko, Raf, and the 'bots were looking at Jack as he put the finishing touches on his jacket. But that wasn't what they were paying attention to, they were looking at the Omnitrix.

Whispering to Raf, Miko said: "I guess he's decided to do it."

Chapter end.

* * *

Author's note:vUpdates for The Next are gonna come much slower than ones for Power of Ten.


	4. 3 Everybody Talks About the Weather

Author's note: Really sorry that it's been taking so long to get chapters out. I haven't given up on this story, not by a long shot, it's just that even though I'm on summer break, I have been doing quite a few things, from watching the Yogscast to playing Pokemon. However, I have been doing some drawings of scenes from this story. Bear in mind that they're not fantastic, but they're passible.

Now, onward to the show.

* * *

Somewhere in the midwest...

Today was a real scorcher, and on top of that, it was a wet heat.

As one of the workers in one of the corn fields wiped the sweat from his brow, he heard something whistling as it descended rapidly.

What he saw seem to be humanoid in shape, red and seemed to be on fire. It didn't crash however. It pulled up before it hit the farmer's livelihood. However, the flying this object was performing was far from controlled. It seemed like this was the first time this thing, or maybe person had flown before.

Two cops were running after flying flaming person.

"There he goes." One of the cops shouted.

"Suspect is heading west through the back forty of the Douglas farm." The second cop said through the radio.

"Copy that." The man on the other end said.

"You got that truck ready?"

"It'll be ready before he gets here sheriff Mason."

A squad car sounded its siren. It then pursued the flaming person, driving through the corn field, doing more damage to the crops than the actual fire was.

The were right on the flyer's tail despite the flyer's attempts to lose his pursuers.

The flying man looked over his shoulder to see the cop car chasing him, but when he turned to face forward, he didn't have enough time to react the the scarecrow that he was going to crash into.

He hit the scarecrow and crashed, landing on a dirt road. Most of the flames that were around him disappeared, revealing him to be a Pyronite. A Pyronite that had an Omnitrix dial. Wait, what?

"Uhg." The Pyronite groaned. His voice didn't belong to Heatblast, it sounded completely different. "I'm the worst flyer ever."

"There he is!" Sheriff Mason shouted. Two of his deputies had a fire engine's hose pointed at the Pyronite.

"I don't want to hurt you." The Pyronite said, hold his hand out to signal stop.

"Lucky us." Sheriff Mason obviously wouldn't show the same mercy. "Let're rip!"

One of the deputies turned a wheel, allowing water to flow into the hose. The second opened the nozzle, spraying the Pyronite.

The water hit the Pyronite, but it weakened him instead of knocking him out. "Cut it out!" The Pyronite shouted. He shot a fireball out of his chest where the Omnitrix symbol was at the fire truck, causing it to explode.

"Jeez!" One of the shooken up deputies commented.

The Pyronite stood near the two deputies who had survived a vehicle explosion. He looked down on them. "Now why don't you leave me alone?" He asked.

The police car came out of the cornfield and rammed into the Pyronite, sending him flying against the side of a building.

The Pyronite landed on his back. Seconds after that, he turned into a human, an African American teenager to be exact. He wore a white sleeveless shirt and grey pants. He fell unconscious.

* * *

Later, in a cooler...

The teen was sitting on a chair made of blocks of ice. He had handcuffs on.

"You're gonna talk Alan." The Sheriff said, his breath visible. "The only question is how long it's going to take."

Alan looked up and glared at the Sheriff.

"Okay, I'll start talking." The Sheriff took two steps closer to Alan. "You can join in whenever you like." He bent down to say. "Over the past week there's been a series of fires all over Grover's Mill."

"I didn't burn anything!" Alan shouted.

"Ah, I knew you could talk. Now if you could just come up with something smarter to say."

"What's the point, you don't believe me anyway."

"Fires all over town, weird paths burned through cornfields, Mrs Albright's oldest boy turns out to be some kinda firebreathing mutant? What's not to believe?" The Sheriff said. Alan didn't respond. "Ah, back to the silent treatment." He removed the badge from Alan's shirt.

"Give it back." Alan shouted. "My father gave it to me!"

"Well, then you shouldn't have any trouble telling me what it is."

"It's mine!" Alan shouted.

"Unless you're an arsonist and a thief." The sheriff and the deputy exited the cooler. The lights were turned off before they closed the door and locked it on the way out. "Keep him in there until I can find a judge to tell us what to do with him." The Sheriff placed the badge on a table. It started to blink and beep.

* * *

Somewhere outside of Bellwood...

It was night time. Kevin, Gwen, and Jack were riding in the green muscle car. As always, Kevin was driving, and Jack was in the back.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Asked an impatient Jack.

Kevin responded. "Yes."

The car passed a speed limit sign that read 25 MPH.

"We're still going the same speed."

"It's called the speed limit." Replied a smug Kevin. "Fastest we're going tonight."

"But you said-"

"I said could, not would."

"My mom's gonna kill me if I'm late getting home again."

"Huh, if she grounds you, it'll be just me and Gwen." Kevin said, looking at Jack in the rearview mirror. "Tough break."

Gwen spoke up. "You'd think I'd go with you if Jack wasn't here?"

"Yeah. I got roguish charm."

A light yet audible beeping was heard.

"Phone call for Mr roguish charm."

"Not mine."

"It's probably from one of your many girlfriends." Replied Gwen who had a smirk. She reached into the pocket of Kevin's coat and pulled out the plumber badge. "Hey, that's your Plumber's badge, what's it doing?"

"Don't know. New to me."

A hologram was displayed. It was a map to the badge's location.

"Woah."

Jack peered his head into the front of the car to get a look. "It's some kinda map." Jack guessed. "If I was a gambling man, I'd say it's a GPS for badges."

"So why's one of them flashing?" Kevin asked.

"It's gotta be a message from grandpa Max." Jack said. "He's telling us where he is."

"You think? It might be that Hopper that Labrid mentioned. But Hopper is a friend of grandpa, so he might know where he is."

"Okay, that's worth breaking some traffic laws." Kevin said as he shifted into high gear. He came to a T junction and did a sharp left turn, going in the direction of Grover's Mill

* * *

Back in the icebox/ makeshift prison cell...

Alan inhaled deeply. He tried to concentrate and assume his Pyronite form, but once he got the flame started, it quickly died down. "Too cold." Was the less than brilliant observation that he made while looking at the handcuffs that were around his wrists.

He hacked up some mucus[something this author can admit to doing], and spat it at the chain that connected the two halves. The steel melted and now his hands were free.

He made his way out of the freezer and found that the door was unlocked. Opening it slowly, he saw that the cop that had been ordered to guard the door was sleeping on the job.

Alan rubbed his hands together and after concentrating hard enough, he assumed his pyronite form. He melted a hole in the wall. Flying out, he began to make his getaway. This awoke the guard who was helpless to stop him.

Shaking his head and face palming, the stationed deputy groaned: "I am so fired."

* * *

Later...

The cops had left, and after that, Jack, Gwen, and Kevin had arrived.

"Grandpa Max is here?" Gwen asked while Kevin looked at the map that the badge projected.

"Well, the blinking light on the map is here." Kevin deactivated the map. "Guess we'll find out the rest soon enough."

"He's inside the building. Come on." Jack said as he walked forward.

"Let me dump the jacket first, it must be ninety degrees." Kevin said.

"That's what you get for trying to look cool all the time." Jack playfully mocked.

Gwen meanwhile took a look at the building, more specifically where there was a gaping hole in the side of it.

"Hey guys. What do you make of this?

"It's, a big hole?"

"Very helpful Kevin." Gwen said with sarcasm.

"We better check it out." Jack said. He and the other climbed up the foundation of the building. "Hello?" Hello? Anybody here?" They heard beeping. Jack saw the badge blinking green. He picked it up and showed it to Gwen and Kevin. "Found what we were tracking."

"You think it belongs to grandpa?" Gwen asked.

"If it does, then he's out there, somewhere, going after what ever made this hole." Jack had no idea that what he thought was his grandfather, and what made the hole were the same thing."

And speaking of which...

* * *

Meanwhile, in a cornfield...

Alan was running from the police. He was being chased through a cornfield, with the police following him by seeing the light he was producing.

Coming to a tractor, he decided to hide under it, which might not be the safest thing to do.

Mason and his deputies were within a hundred yards of Alan. "The trail ends here. He can't be far."

Alan saw the beams from their flashlights and knew he had to make a run for it. He got out from underneath the farm equipment and walked slowly into the corn field.

Exiting the cornfield, Sheriff Mason pointed a flashlight at the tractor's driver seat and saw Alan.

"Found him!"

The Deputies surrounded him.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?!" Alan shouted.

"Doesn't work that way son." Mason said, being in the right.(Alan at that point was a fugitive of the law, and had destroyed police property.) "Why don't you come along quietly- yow!" Alan had fired a flame bolt at Mason, which melted the flashlight that he held. "That's it! Take him down!"

The other cops approached Alan, shotguns ready to fire.

"Stay back!" Alan panicked and unleashed a massive blast of flames that knocked out the deputies and destroyed the tractor. After seeing what he accidentally did, Alan ran up to the sheriff. "I didn't mean to- Are you okay?" He was about to touch Mason to see if he was still alive, but a pink wall appeared between him and the sheriff, startling him. "Ah!"

As the wall disappeared, Alan turned around to see Gwen, Jack, and Kevin.

"Guy looks like Heatblast." Kevin commented.

"I noticed."

"Rock paper scissors to see who kicks his butt?" Kevin asked while Jack glared at him.

"Ye-no." Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected the an alien that resembled a humanoid manta ray. He slammed down on the Omnitrix and was transformed into Jetray. The red and yellow alien announced his name: "Jetray!"

Stumbling back, Alan shouted: "Stay away from me!" He fired a stream of flames at Jetray, who swiftly moved to avoid getting hit.

Jetray then flew at Alan in response, knocking him over and tackling to the ground. He glared at Alan before the Pyronite hybrid grabbed Jetray and flipped him over, getting on top.

"Hey! Get off me!" Jetray kicked Alan, who flew into the corn field.

Flying above the crops, Jetray could locate Alan almost insultingly easy due to the light he was producing. The red alien followed the flaming hybrid as he tried to escape.

Alan turned and flew up. He narrowly avoided hitting Jetray, who was a bit annoyed. "Watch it!" He then flew after Alan.

Alan was faster than Jetray, and as such, he was able to get to a higher altitude that the power gliding alien. He then slowed his burn, turned around and flew towards Jetray at full speed. He fired several streams of flame, which Jetray dodged before firing optic blasts at Alan, the green beams hitting his back.

While Alan was in free fall, Jetray took notice of the metallic carvings in the field.

Alan's flames reignited as he regained control. He saw that Jetray was still pursuing him. He turned around and while flying, fired a stream of fire at Jetray, which the Aerophibian stopped with an optic blast. A beam fired from Jetray's tail hit Alan, knocking him out of the sky and causing him to crash into the ground.

He flattened the crops that were in a ten foot area around him.

"Uhg. I don't feel so good." Alan groaned.

Jetray flew over head then landed at the edge of the circle before turning back into Jack.

"Had enough?" Jack asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Uh huh."

"There's an old guy who's been chasing you, probably wearing a hawaiian shirt." Jack gave the basic description of his grandpa. "Where is he?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Alan though Jack was insane.

"My grandfather. Where is he?!" Jack wasn't buying Alan's response.

A flashlight was shining on Jack's back.

"Freeze!" One of the deputies shouted.

"I should've known you couldn't've set all those fire by yourself. But now I've got you Alan. You and your accomplice." Mason said. Jack didn't like where this was going. Right about now, the idea that Alan really did not know about Max. "Now, put your hands where I can see them." Mason ordered.

Jack didn't want to break the law, but right now, coming in quietly wasn't an option. "Run!" Jack shouted.

"Halt!" One of the deputies shouted as Jack ran into the cornfield with Alan following close behind.

"Go after them!" Mason commanded.

Jack was hauling ass to put as much distance between himself and the police as he could. He looked over his shoulder to see Alan following him.

Jack stopped dead in his tracks, which allowed Alan to catch up to him. "Stop following me!" Barked a frustrated Jack. "How am I supposed to hide when you're around? You glow in the dark like a genetically modified cat."[Yes, that's a real thing.]

"But, I don't know where to go." Alan knew that the cops would go to his house to catch him.

"I'll tell you where to go-" Jack heard rustling in the corn. "Shh. Somebody's coming."

"Hey, I think I see something." One of the deputies said after seeing movement in his flashlight's beam. He and the sheriff went to go see what it was.

They saw four lights approach them, which was accompanied by the rumble of an engine. The lights and engine rumble both belonged to Kevin's car, which revved up before driving at the two officers.

"Look out!" Mason shouted before pushing his subordinate out of the way. Thankfully, Kevin made a sharp ninety degree turn to the right, an avoided hitting either officer. He drove through the cornfield, using the paths between the sections as rodes.

Sheriff Mason and the officer that was with him both rushed to get back into their car. Mason drove after Kevin's muscle car, putting the pedal to the metal as he drove down the field.

The deputy, who was riding shotgun was whimpering like a cowardly boy. As Mason took numerous sharp turns.

The chase was rather short, it ended when Kevin's car stopped to avoid hitting the blades of a combine harvester.

The police car came to a stop a few feet behind Kevin's muscle car. Mason and the other officer exited the car.

Shining his flashlight at the driver's side window, Mason shouted: "Alright Alan, you and your friend get out of the car. Right now!"

The window rolled down, revealing to Mason that it was Kevin behind the wheel. "Is there a problem officer?" Kevin said smugly.

Mason and the other cop looked and the only other person in the car was Gwen, who waved at Mason.

The expression on Mason's face said it all. He was not amused.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Jack and Alan were hiding out in the a barn that seemed to have been cut through by some sorta laser. The sound of clanging metal was heard as they ran on the silver path that was where the missing section of barn was.

"Why'd you help me?"

"I don't know. You remind me of myself."

"Yeah, I guess you're a monster too." Alan reasoned that Jack was in the same boat as he was.

"Technically, I'm a whole bunch of monsters, and those 'monsters' are actually aliens, but that's the cool part."

"Nothing is cool about this." Alan held out his hands. A spark fell to the ground and ignited a small flame that Alan quickly put out by kicking some dirt onto.

"No?" Jack thought it was cool that Alan was born with his powers. "Super strength, the flying?"

"I hate flying." Alan said.

"Yeah, you do kinda stink at it." Jack had to agree with that.

"Yeah... Well, my powers just showed up about a couple of weeks ago."

"So you're an alien?"

"Part alien." Alan reverted back to his human state. "My mom is human, and I thought I was too until I woke up one morning and my bed was on fire." Alan sat down on a bale of hay. "My dad put it out and then they explained it to me. He's a plumber. They're-" He was interrupted by Jack.

"Intergalactic police. Did you dad give you his badge?"

"Yeah, when he explained to me what it was." Alan hung his head when he realized he had forgotten it. "But sheriff Mason took it from me."

"Yeah, well," Jack reached into his pocket. "I kinda took it back."

* * *

Meanwhile, with Kevin and Gwen...

The Sheriff's squad car drove away from Kevin's muscle car. Looking in his rear view mirror, Kevin saw the Sheriff's car drive away.

"That didn't go too bad. We led them away from Jack and all we got is this." Kevin held up the yellow speeding ticket that he was given.

"Kevin! That's a four hundred dollar speeding ticket."

"I know. I think it's a personal record." Kevin opened up the glove compartment and put the newest ticket among those that were already in there.

He started the engine and drove off.

Later, as they were driving, a realization dawned on Gwen.

"Grandpa Max doesn't have anything to do with this, does he?"

"Nope."

"So, that badge belongs to that Heatblast guy. Where do you think he got it?"

"He doesn't act like a Plumber, he's probably just a Plumber's kid." Kevin reasoned.

"Why would a policeman give his son a badge?"

"To keep real plumbers from arresting them for interplanetary trespassing." With that one sentence, it became clear that stereotypes were an universal concept.[No joke there. The idea that a member of a species that isn't native to a planet can be arrested for, well, let's face it, illegal immigration, even if they were born on said planet, is rather horrifying.] "A badge is better than a passport."

"I'm not following." Gwen didn't understand what Kevin was saying.

He went into further detail. "Heatblast junior is probably part human. Humans with alien ancestors are actually pretty common. Most of them have super powers."

"Common? Common how?"

"Not sure, it might be like one for every thousand humans is part alien."

"Really? It can't be that high."

"Well yeah. That's what you are." Kevin explained. "You get your powers through one of your grandparents." Kevin glanced at Gwen and saw that she was confused. "I thought you knew."

"I get my powers through magic talismans and books, and that one time when we all got those weird belts."

"Heh heh. Those belts were one thing, but magic? Yeah right."

* * *

Back with Alan and Jack...

Jack was leaning against the side of the cut through barn as Alan explained the situation to him.

"But the sheriff thinks I set all the fires." Alan said, thinking Jack wouldn't believe him.

To the African-American-Pyronite's surprise, Jack was on his side. "I don't." Jack addressed the elephant in the room. "For one, no fire could've cut this building in half this cleanly."

They saw the headlights of Kevin's car approach them. The engine came to a stop and the lights turned off.

Kevin and Gwen stepped out and walked over to Jack and Alan.

"Who's the squirt?" Kevin asked, glancing at Alan. As Alan took two steps forward, he assumed his Pyronite form. "Oh."

Jack chipped a bit of Alan's shoulder off.

"Ow." The Pyronite hybrid yelped.

"That didn't hurt." Jack said innocently. He turned to Gwen and Kevin. "I wanna show you guys what I saw when I was flying over the cornfield." He took a few steps and then knelt on the ground and drew several circles on the wooden floor, using the piece of Alan's shoulder as a crayon or pencil. He connected the circles with lines and drew smaller ones within the larger circles. "It's not exact, but it looks like this." He showed what he drew to Kevin and Gwen. What Jack had draw was well, circles in the fields. "Those aren't roads burnt through the cornfields, those are crop circles."

"Like those things aliens leave to find their way around?" Alan asked.

"More like those things farmers leave to fool city folk." Kevin joked.

"It's not like we don't know a bunch of aliens." Jack mentioned.

"True." Kevin said in agreement. "But Miko and Bulkhead haven't been 'crop bashing' ever since Bulkhead got corn stuck in this treads."

"So maybe it was some other alien that was playing a prank."

"That's also moot. I don't think these are crop circles. If they were, they wouldn't have gone through the buildings."

"Okay, so what do you think they are?" Alan asked.

"I think they're circuit boards."

* * *

Soon...

Gwen was generating steps out of mana that she, Kevin, Alan, and Jack used to get above the cornfields to see the 'crop circles' in their entirety.

"How're we doing this again?" Asked Alan, who was nervous about walking on something that wasn't there a moment ago.

"Magic." Came Gwen's answer.

"It ain't magic." Kevin butted in.

"Oh right." Gwen remembered the conversation that she and Kevin had on the road. "Kevin said I've got superpowers because of my alien bloodline."

"Huh?" Jack heard the full conversation, but wasn't able to understand what they were talking about.

"Could you guys concentrate on what's important." Asked a very nervous Alan.

"You don't think what we're standing on is important?" Kevin asked, pointing on the platform that they were standing on.

"Stop teasing him Kevin." Gwen glared at Kevin for a second out of mild frustration. "We're high enough to see." The four of them turned to see the pattern that Jack had tried to describe. However, the 'crop circles' seemed to be made out of some kind of silvery metal. "Like I said, these aren't crop circles, they're circuit boards. I think this whole valley is some kinda giant machine"

Out of the corner of Jack's eye, he noticed two spots where there was blue flashing light. "Hey, check it out." He pointed them out.

"See, I told you I didn't do it." Alan said, further cementing the truth that he was innocent.

Jack smiled slightly before saying: "Let's go down and take a closer look."

"Yeah. Down is good." Despite being able to fly, Alan didn't like the idea of standing on a platform made of solidified energy.

Later...

Having walked through the cornfield, the Tennysons and their friends of various degrees of trustworthiness came to where the lights that Jack saw were coming from.

Two humanoid beings were shooting blue beams at the ground with what appeared to be metal detector like tools. The suits that they wore were a sickly yellow with a grey helmet and plating on the chest, shoulders and knees.

"What do you think they're doing?" Alan said with his normal, not sneaking around voice, which was risking drawing unwanted attention.

"Shh!" Jack, Gwen, and Kevin said in unison.

"Sorry." Alan said with a much quieter voice.

The one that was using the beam emitter shut off what he was using. He signaled the other culprit, who flipped a switch, causing the panels to glow silver before a massive, multilevel structure called a weather array rose up. It had many different platforms that were supported by a central tower.

Lightning came out of the top of it. The wind picked up slightly, but soon returned to normal. Seconds later, it started to snow.

Throughout the whole process, Jack and the others were speechless.

They walked out of the fields and onto the silver platforms. Immediately, one of the machine's effects was felt by everyone. The sudden drop in temperature.

Alan bent down and held his hand to a pile of snow to see if it was real. It melting was a good indication that yes, this snow is real.

Kevin held his hands over Alan's head as if it was a campfire.

It went without saying, but Alan found that annoying. "Cut it out."

"Sorry man, it's cold out here." Kevin said. His breath, along with everyone else's was visible due to the cold.

Jack came to the same realization that Gwen, and possibly Kevin must've come to. "The tower's some kinda weather machine."

The siren of a police car was heard as two drove up. They came to a stop, after which, Sheriff Mason and several of the other officers stepped out.

"Alright, freeze!" Mason said as he made his way to the group.

"Already working on it." Kevin said as he held his arms together.

"I took it easy on you Alan on respect for your folks." Mason said. "But you built this machine. You're stealing all the heat to feed your powers."

"It's not like that." Alan said, jogging over to the Sheriff.

"Stay away from him!" One of the officer's chambered a round in a shot gun.

"Take your own advice." Kevin said before taking the gun from the officer and using the metal that the barrel was made of to turn his arm into steel.

"Hey!" The officer yelped as the gun was taken from him. Kevin then proceeded to break the shotgun as if it were made of gold plastic.

"He's one of them! They're all freaks." Mason said in a panic as he and the other officers backed off.

"Slow down." Jack said, trying to defuse the situation.

Suddenly, two of the officers were shot at by blue beams, encasing both of them in a layer of metal.

Several of the humanoids that had made the 'crop circles' emerged from the fields and stood behind the police.

"What'd you do to my men?" Mason demanded in fear.

One of the humanoids fired a beam at Mason, but it was blocked by Gwen, who deflected it with a mana wall.

A second hostile began shooting at the barrier. The combined power was starting to overwhelm Gwen.

"Can't take too many of these."

"You don't have to." Jack said before activating the Omnitrix and transforming.

"Swampfire!" The plant based alien flung two fireballs over the weakening barrier. "Heyah!" Both fireballs hit their mark and knocked out the aliens. Swampfire jumped as one of the metal covering beams was fired at him, avoiding getting hit. He dodged another blast while he was in the air. And came down. There was a slight explosion when he landed. Firing a fireball from his hand, he blasted away another of the mooks.

Kevin ran up to the footsoldiers. He rolled to avoid being hit by the beams. He delivered an uppercut to one of them, sending it flying into the field. He then grabbed the suit of another one and tossed it.

Gwen fired a beam of mana at one of the mooks. She grabbed it with her powers and restrained it. She threw it at a tractor, incapacitating it.

As Alan was being fired at, he took off to avoid getting hit. He then came down and kicked one of the mooks over before firing a flame ball at the other one that was attacking him.

One of the officers was fired at. He managed to avoid being hit by ducking. Before the mook could adjust his aim, sheriff Mason jumped on its back and tried to tackle him. He caused the mook to encase one of his buddies in metal.

Ripping out several wires, Mason got clear of the alien as his suit started to smoke.

Swampfire rushed up and punched one of the mooks that was aimed at Mason. He delivered several punches to the mook before grabbing onto its shoulders and tossing him away. However, his grip was too tight, and he ripped off the minion's helmet, revealing the face underneath. He decided on keeping the helmet, seeing as it looked like a masquerade Dopant's face.

"What the?" Swampfire looked at the mask in his hand. He then looked at who he had thrown and saw the unmistakable head of a DNAlien.

*DNAlien language*

"Oh man." Swampfire came to the realization that this is what his grandpa was talking about. "These guys are like the aliens we fought." He said to Kevin.

"We are the DNAliens! And we will destroy you all!" The DNAlien said in english as it approached Swampfire.

"Uhg. Whatever," Swampfire side kicked the DNAlien. "haven't heard that one before." He said sarcastically. He then realized something. He turned to face Gwen. "Wait a minute. Remember how cold it was on their ship? I think they need cold weather so they're making some."

"Kinda makes sense when you think about it." Kevin said.

"Wait, so the big alien plot is they're installing an air conditioner?" Once spoken out loud, it sounded rather minor. But he didn't have time to voice his confusion, as he was shot by a DNAlien using a metal coating ray.

"Jack!" Gwen was about to rush over to see if Swampfire could be helped. "Ah!" She too was fired at and encased in the alien metal.

After Gwen was trapped, Kevin was encased, which was followed by last unnamed officer.

Two DNAliens exited the field, their suit's helmets off. One of them try to shoot Mason, but the sheriff ducked and avoided the beam. He ran over to the DNAlien and punch it down. However, that victory was short lived as seconds later, Mason was imprisoned.

That left only Alan. "No!" He shouted as he saw Mason get covered in metal. A DNAlien took aim at him and fired, but instead of being enclosed in a metal shell, Alan was unaffected. As Alan stood there in confusion, the DNAlien adjusted a knob on the weapon. With the power turned up, it fired at the Pyronite hybrid, but again, the beam had no effect. "Guess I'm too hot to handle." Alan said smugly with his hands on his hips. That smugness evaporated when four more DNAliens joined the one that tried and failed to incapacitate Alan. "Woah! Wait a minute guys!"

In a panic, Alan was forced to back up towards the weather machine.

Meanwhile, the palms of Swampfire's hands started to glow. This melted the metal that covered him, allowing him to get freed. "Woah. That was weird, even by my standards." Swampfire looked to see Alan getting pursued by five DNAliens. Need some help?

"Yes. Please." Alan said nervously.

Swampfire released a gas from the holes in his palms that went to several dozen stalks of corn. It caused the plants to bend to his will. The gas also caused them to become vine like, which made restraining the DNAliens easier. By waving his arms together, Swampfire caused the vines to slam the DNAliens together, knocking them out.

"You beat them!" Alan thought that what Jack had done was cool.

"Plenty more where those came from." Swampfire said. "We need to take down that weather tower." He pointed to the weather array, where one could see DNAliens sationed on the various levels. "Take care of the guys at the top so I can get close."

"I don't know if I can do it." Alan said, doubting himself. "I'm really bad at flying."

"Heh heh heh." Swampfire chuckled. He placed his hand on the Pyronite shoulder. "Yeah, I had trouble at first too. But now's not the time to doubt ourselves." Swampfire(Jack) remembered something that he used to do when he could turn into Heatblast. "How's about you et me show you a trick I learned."

* * *

Soon...

Alan was flying on a piece of the ground. Using it as a Hoverboard, he flew to the very top of the weather array. It was an attempt to get the DNAliens to shoot at him to draw their fire away from Swampfire.

Alan shot two fireballs at the flames that hit him, knocking those two out. Two more began shooting at him. He managed to avoid their blasts by swerving to avoid getting his. He flung a fireball at one of the DNAliens and shot a burst of flame at the other.

With the top level of the weather array in a state of chaos, Alan gave a thumbs up, which Swampfire managed to see from the ground.

Swampfire then ran towards the base of the weather machine. As he ran down the silver path, two DNAliens took aim and fired at his, their beams crossing to form a bigger and stronger ray.

Swampfire fired at fireball at the approaching beam. Both blast neutralized each other. Swampfire got up to the DNAliens and punched both of them out.

He got to the base of the weather array and began to put his plan into action. He started to push against the central tower.

Though much stronger than even the average human, Swampfire on his own was nothing compared to other transformations like Four Arms or Humungousaur, so, in order to knock the tower over, he would need to use more than brute strength. "Gonna need some leverage for this stunt." His feet turned into roots that stuck him into the ground. "Okay. Here goes." He began to push it over, which was rather easy, seeing as the DNAliens didn't use a proper foundation. The tower came tumbling down.

The skies cleared up and moon was visible. Alan flew over on his 'comet board' and landed next to Swampfire.

Soon...

Alan was helping to get everyone out of the metal that they were stuck in. The last person that he freed was Sheriff Mason.

"What happened?" Mason asked as he stumbled a bit.

"Alan defeated the aliens, destroyed their weather machine, then used his heat powers to free everyone from suspended animation." Jack said, summing up what had happened.

"We helped." Kevin added.

"But not much." Jack corrected. After Alan reverted back to his human state, Jack turned to face him. "We were wondering if you could join our team." Jack asked. "We could use all the help we could get. There's a lot of aliens to fight out there."

"He can't." Mason said, putting his hand on Alan's shoulder. "He's gonna be too busy helping me round up any other aliens who might still be hiding in town."

"Even so, any time you need me, just call." Alan said.

Chapter end.


	5. 4 Old Debts

Night time in a run down part of a large city...

A rat scurried across an alley. It was heading to its home after looking for food in the trash. It was shot by a blue energy bolt that was fired by a pistol that was wielded by a four foot tall alien with grey fur, a rat like head, yellow eyes with black pupils, and black quills that seemed to resemble hair. A toothy grin formed on his snout when he saw the roasted corpse he turned the rat into.

"Ha!" The alien, a small time crook named Argit laughed. He holstered the gun that he held and in his orange jacket and rushed over to the rat. He grabbed the dead rodent and ate it whole.

Licking his lips, Argit belched before the headlights of a car shown on his back. His eyes widened as he heard the engine rev. Argit looked to see that in the driver's seat was Kevin, and he had a look of calm rage.

Kevin pulled up right beside Argit.

"Kevin." Argit said as he walked up to the driver's window. Kevin rolled down the window when Argit was right next to him. "Buddy. I've been waiting like an hour."

"I said I'd be here, and I'm here Argit. What's your proposition?" Kevin asked.

"Awwww." Argit groaned when he heard Kevin's tone. "Why you gotta be such a downer?" He asked, raising his shoulders. "After all we've been through? Ain't you glad to see your old running buddy?"

Kevin rolled up the window and started the engine of his car. He was going to drive away from the being that has caused Kevin quite a bit of grief.

Right as he shifted into reverse, Argit put his hands on the window. "No, wait!" Argit shouted softly. "I got that tech you're looking for!"

"What makes you think I'm looking for anything?"

Rolling his eyes, Argit said: "Oh come on Kev. Octagon Vreedle says you've been vid messaging all the underground swappers. And judging by what he's been saying, you're in the market for a specific premio machino. And I got it."

"For real?" Kevin was interested.

"Oh, now you're listening, now that I can do something for you." Argit pulled out what was either a cellphone, or something that looked like one. He pressed a button before putting it the pocket of his blue pants. "You are so off my contact list." He turned and walked away from Kevin's muscle car.

Kevin pulled up to Argit and followed him at a slow speed. He said to Argit: "Come on Argit, you've burned me on so many deals so many time, it makes me forget how tight we really are.

Argit's eyes widened. He stopped walking, allowing Kevin to catch up with him. "Kev." Argit said with a slight smile across his face. "Buddy. I can't stay mad at you." He chuckled. "Not when there's money involved."

"So, let's see it." Kevin, now wanting in on this deal.

Argit's eyes widened. "Uhhhh... I don't actually 'got it' got it."

"Ah come on!" Kevin hit his fist on the door of his car.

Not wanting to make Kevin mad, Argit said something. "But I can make the connection to the guy that does." Kevin raised his eyebrow with intrigue. "But I gotta warn you, it'll cost yah.

* * *

Later, at the Rust Bucket...

Gwen and Jack were sitting outside of their grandfather's mobile home/mobile ass kicking machine, waiting for Kevin to finish up the repairs that he was making to it. Gwen was looking through a box of old pictures while Jack just zoned out.

Gwen chuckled. "Hey Jack look, it's us." Gwen showed Jack a picture of the two of them and their grandpa. In the photo, both of them were ten years old. They were yelling at eachother as the Rust Bucket was being towed. Driving between what at the time they thought was a normal RV and the younger versions of themselves, was a blue motorcycle with pink trim. Max had his hands on his grand kids' shoulder, smiling despite what was going on. "It's us in front of the old Rust Bucket."

"Ha ha. It's just like grandpa Max to wreck one dumper and find another." Jack saw the motorcycle in the photo. "Wait, is that... Arcee?"

"Where?" Gwen was looking around but couldn't find the Autobot.

"No, in the picture." Jack said, pointing at what might've been Arcee's alt mode.

"Okay. If that isn't her, it's a coincidence. But if it is her, I'd go through all my photos and see how many times she showed up."[Don't worry, I'm not going to have a 'two people destined to meet thing' when it comes to Arcee and Jack, it's just an exercise with the question 'How many pictures taken by other people are you in?']

"But regardless, that summer was great, not as good as the one three years ago, but I had a lot of fun with you, grandpa Max, and Ben. You know, before it was either hero time or rollout time. Back before we knew this guy." Jack said, pointing at Kevin, who was still under the Rust Bucket.

"Ha ha. Very funny Tennyson." Kevin said, rolling out from under the Rust Bucket. "I know you're here to keep an eye on me."

"It's sweet that you wanted to fix up the Rust Bucket." Gwen said with a smile.

Kevin removed the supports and lowered the Rust Bucket back onto the ground.

Gwen was going to put the box of photos back into the Rust Bucket, but Kevin got in front of the door.

"Not yet." Kevin said before he entered the Rust Bucket and closed the door.

"Still not buying the whole 'nice guy' act Kevin. Just stick to what you do best, being a smug bastard that's likable." Jack said.

"Jack." Gwen glared, but didn't look at Jack.

Kevin sat behind the driver's seat. He held the Plumber's badge that he got from Labrid up to the dashboard, causing it to open up, revealing a piece of high tech machinery. Kevin smiled before saying: "Okay, I'm gonna try the engine."

Kevin turned the key, causing smoke to leave the exhaust pipes before the engine started to rumble.

"Go Kevin." Jack said, giving a thumbs up.

Kevin disengaged the parking brake and put his foot on the gas pedal, causing the Rust Bucket to drive off.

Jack jumped on Gwen to push her out of the way so that wouldn't get crushed by the RV, even though it wasn't near it.

"Come back Kevin!" Jack shouted, expecting Kevin to hear him.

"Jack!" Gwen shouted as Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Big Chill. He slammed down onto the dial and transformed into the selected alien.

"Big Chill." The Necrofriggian said as he ran after the Rust Bucket. He unfolded his cloak and pursued the Rust Bucket by flying after it.

As Kevin exited the RV parking lot and turned onto the main road, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw Big Chill flying after him.

Kevin grinned, before pressing a button that caused a gun to emerge from one of the storage compartments on the roof. The gun then aimed at Big Chill and fired. The Necrofriggian swerved to dodge them. As the targeting computer got a lock on Big Chill, the Necrofriggian stood still. When it fired, he turned invisible and let the bolt pass right through him.

Out of the city, chill flew around a large boulder that the road went through. He got in front of the Rust Bucket, took a deep breath and then sprayed ice all over the road, causing it to freeze up. The Rust Bucket started to swerve when it drove onto the ice.

"Ah!" Kevin grunted as he tried to regain control. He pressed a button that caused spikes to emerge from the wheels of the Rust Bucket which gripped the ice and allowed him to drive smoothly.

Big Chill sprayed ice at the Rust Bucket, causing it to go off a through the guardrail and over a cliff. However, the Rust Bucket managed to stay on the ground, where it started to drive down a hill.

Kevin pressed another button, which caused a red 'snow plow' to emerge from the bumper. Said 'snow plow' began knocking over trees as they were driven into. Big Chill, forgetting that he could turn intangible, dodged the chopped down trees as he flew after his grandfather's mobile base.

The Rust Bucket went over a cliff and landed back on the road, with Big Chill still in hot pursuit.

Kevin looked in the mirror and saw Big Chill turn invisible.

"Nice try, but tonight you're minding your own business." Kevin pressed another button, which caused a thermal scan of the area. The landscape was now a multitude of colors, all except for one area, where Big Chill was, which was a big black spot. A targeting reticle appeared on the screen. It locked onto the ridiculously cold spot and fired a missile at it. The missile came from a launched that emerged from a panel on the driver's side of the Rust Bucket.

When it was halfway to Big Chill, the missile's warhead exploded, causing it to shoot a net that caught Big Chill, causing him to fall to the ground. The Rust Bucket drove around a bend in the road, getting out of sight of Big Chill who groaned as he tried to get up. He saw the Rust Bucket disappear before he reverted back to being human. The net dissipated, allowing Jack to stand up.

Gwen, who was running on platforms made of mana that somehow increased her speed caught up to Jack.

"He got away." Jack was mad.

"Woah." Gwen wasn't sure how to react to this. "I mean, oh no."

"Why'd I trust him?" Jack asked himself as he turned and began walking to the side of the road. "I barely know him, but I didn't think he'd do this."

"Jack, this isn't how Kevin normally acts, he's different, and we're different too." Gwen tried to calm her angry cousin down. "Don't worry, I can track him using this." She showed Jack a rag that she had kept in her pocket.

"You kept his sweating handkerchief?!" Jack asked, unsure as to whether he should be impressed or disgusted.

Gwen closed her eyes. The handkerchief floated above her hand with a magenta aura. A few seconds later, it landed back in her hand. "Got him." She said, clenching her fist.

* * *

Somewhere in the desert...

Kevin and Argit were looking under the hood of the Rust Bucket. Argit held up a lantern and saw that the engine was just a normal human made one.

"Mhmm. Mhmm yep. Alright." Argit closed the hood. "It's a bucket of bolts man." Argit honestly though that Kevin was trying to pull a fast one on him.

Kevin walked into the Rust Bucket and held his plumber badge up to one of the cabinets. They rotated around to reveal a rack of various blasters. Argit shrugged. Kevin then held the badge to the dashboard, revealing the device that activated all the defences that were used against Big Chill.

"Like I said, a bucket of bolts, but the after market extras are worth a fortune!" Argit was overjoyed.

"Think your guy will take it?"

"Oh yeah. If he got the chance." The quills on Argit's head and back stood on end. He fired a whole barrage of them at Kevin. Surprisingly, only one hit Kevin's neck.

Now paralyzed, Kevin fell over, still as a board.

"Uhg! I can't move!" Kevin mumbled, only able to move his eyelids and lips.

"Oh, sorry Kev. You see, this haul's worth enough cash to pay off everybody I owe, and finally live a little."

With some effort, Argit managed to pick Kevin up and toss him out of the Rust Bucket.

"The Rust Bucket's all I have to bargain with!" Kevin grumbled.

"Well then you should've held out on me buddy." Argit closed the door and sat in the driver's seat. He rolled down the window. "When you can walk again, you go see him. A tech dealer named Vulkanus. He says he knows you." Argit said as he started the engine and drove off. "Says he wants you dead."

Kevin glared as he heard that name. He struggled as he tried to touch his hand to the ground. Once he did, his skin and clothes became sandstone, allowing him to stand up and run up to a boulder and punched it, breaking off a large piece of it, which he he grabbed and tossed at the Rust Bucket in an attempt to hit it.

Argit saw the boulder approaching him in the mirror. He looked out of the window to see the rock. He swerved to avoid getting hit. Defeated, Kevin just looked on as the Rust Bucket drove away.

* * *

Later...

Gwen and Jack had arrived by taking Kevin's car.

Jack and Gwen were both mad, but to separate levels. Gwen was concealing it a lot better than Jack was.

"Now I know this looks bad..." Kevin said nervously.

"Bad? Bad?!" Jack spat. "You don't get the Rust Bucket back I'll show you the meaning of the word bad." Jack said, tapping Kevin's chest angrily.

"Doubt it." Kevin said, knowing that Jack didn't have it in him to attack his allies.

"What happens when this is all over and Grandpa comes home? Where's he gonna live then?" Jack questioned a guy that he that was his friend, but he was beginning to doubt if the term 'friend' applied to him.

"Do I have to separate you two." Gwen said as her hands were surrounded by Mana energy. "Again."

Jack turned to face Gwen. "He stole grandpa's home." Jack said. "What kinda jerk steals an old man's home?"

"Either a bank or one with a very good reason, right?" Gwen wanted to think Kevin did this for the right reasons.

"Yeah, this is important."

"Important to you." Jack glared at Kevin.

"One second." Kevin held out the Plumber badge. He pressed a button on the side of it as a blue holographic map of the city was brought up. On the map was a blinking red light.

"You hid a tracking device in the undercarrage." Gwen was impressed that Kevin had thought ahead.

"Like I'd let anybody, let alone Argit swipe a fortune in Plumber tech from me."

* * *

Later, at a warehouse lot in Bellwood...

Kevin's car drove down one of the roads that was normally used by delivery trucks. The car came to a stop and its three occupants got out. Kevin opened up the map and saw that they were close to the tracker.

The trio walked over to the warehouse that the signal was coming from. Jack and Kevin kicked open the door, allowing the three of them to get in.

Gwen used as sphere of mana to illuminate the warehouse as she and her two idiots walked in.

The sphere floated ahead of them and illuminated something that didn't give Gwen or Jack much hope. They saw the Rust Bucket, but it had been stripped bare.

"Stripped!" Kevin was ticked off.

"Great, so where's your fortune Kevin?"

Jack turned around and saw something that had the same size and shape of a garage door opener by was red and yellow with black buttons.

He picked it up and examined it. "What's this worth? Five, six bucks?"

Jack grunted before kicking over a stack of tires in frustration. "We're supposed to be keeping the planet safe, and we can't keep a motorhome from being stolen?"

"Drop it." Kevin didn't appreciate Jack's attitude. Kevin turned around and was going to exit the warehouse.

"Don't walk away from me!" Jack yelled, getting in front of Kevin.

Kevin scoffed. "Is this where you turn into an alien and try to kick my ass?"

"I'm considering it." Jack's eyes narrowed as he stared at Kevin.

A door knob started to jiggle. Gwen heard this and shushed Jack and Kevin before getting rid of the Mana Lamp.

The door opened and Argit walked in, whistling as he walked over to the gutted Rust Bucket. He entered through where the door used to be and made his way to the dashboard. He ripped out a cylindrical device. "Score! I knew I missed something."

Argit pocketed the device and made his way to the exit.

A light came on. It was from a mana lamp that Gwen generated. Argit gasped when he saw Gwen and turned around, and saw Jack standing behind him with a death stare while he was cracking his knuckle. Argit then turned his left and saw Kevin, grinning with a need for payback.

"Uh oh." Argit did a one eighty and ran, jumping through a boarded up window as he began to make a run for it.

Jack was running through the door and began to pursue Argit. He activated the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Echo Echo!" The alien form announced as he split up. "Don't. Let. Him. Get. Away." The Echo Echos said as they ran after Argit.

Argit came to a t junction and made a right, but ran right into two of the Echo Echo clones.

"No. You. Don't." The two Echo Echos let out a sonic wave at Argit, sending the hedgehog like alien soaring into a metal fire escape ladder.

Argit began climbing up, but looked up and saw another Echo Echo sitting on the guard rail above him.

"Hi." The Echo Echo grinned before inhaling and letting out a sonic shriek that knocked Argit off the ladder.

When he landed on the ground, a group of Echo Echos surrounded him. Argit got on all fours and shot his quills in all directions. Taking out most of the Echo Echos, since although they had the ability to duplicate, it wasn't like Ditto where all the clones felt what was happening to the rest.

One Echo Echo managed to hit the ground before any of the quills came near him.

Gwen ran up and stood near the passed out Echo Echos. She generated mana around her hands.

Kevin ran up to Gwen and shouted: "Watch out!"

Gwen turned her head. "Don't warn him." Gwen said.

Argit looked over his shoulder and fired Quills at Gwen.

Kevin jumped and pushed Gwen out of the way. "No, you watch out." He said before passing out.

"Oh." Gwen too succumbed to the substance that coated Argit's quills.

Argit and Echo Echo were in a stare down.

"Wall. Of." Echo Echo said as Argit prepared to fired more of his quills. "Sound!" The Echo Echo split into four more copies. When the quills were fired at him/them, they directed them at an another Echo Echo, who was standing on the roof of one of the warehouses, who then directed them to one sitting on top of a service poll before sending them into Argit's rear, knocking him out.[At first that seems like a bad trait that seems like it got passed down through some unknown reason, but upon further examination, such a trait would kinda make sense. Seeing as Argit is the only member of this species that we see, it could be assumed that this was beneficial. Now the rating of this story prevents me from saying more on the subject, but all I can say is 'hey, some people are into it. Who am I to judge?' You know, I suddenly have the urge to watch Alien Planet. Maybe I'll do that after I finish this.]

* * *

Later...

As Argit came to, he found that he had been tied up.

"Awll." Argit groaned. "Uhg. Wha?" He looked up and saw Gwen and Kevin staring down at him. He gasped and tried to fire his quills, but found that they wouldn't shoot.

"I. Superglued. Them. To. Your. Head." Echo Echo, or a collection of several said. Argit looked ahead of him to see about twenty of them looking at him.

"Everybody. Awake?" One Echo Echo asked. They heard snoring and looked behind them to see that one of them was still sleeping.

"Err. Close. Enough." The Echo Echo said. He and the others piled on the still sleeping one, uniting together before reverting back to their human state.

After a flash of green light, Jack stood up and stretched as he yawned. There was a cloud of smoke the dissipated shortly after he transformed. Jack walked over to Gwen and Kevin.

"So let's get this straight." Jack said, looking down at Argit.

"I'll give it to you straight." Argit said. "You cannot trust that man!"

"Me?"

"You know what he was gonna do?" Argit asked. "Steal your motorhome and sell it to another criminal." Kevin was gritting his teeth as Argit lied out his ass. "Thank goodness I stopped him."

"By stealing it yourself?"

"Yeah. I maybe a crook, but this guy's no good." Argit explained. "He stab you in the back just for laughs."

"Hate to say it, but this creep has a point, except for the laughs part." Jack said, looking at Kevin. "Ever since I've met you, you've been up to something, self serving, shifty, always working some kinda angle. Maybe not always a thief, but never 100% on our side." Jack stated. "Got anything to say for yourself?" He asked.

"You know what Tennyson?" Kevin started to raise his voice. "I don't have to explain myself to you." He turned and made his way back to his car. When he passed by Gwen, he said with a much lower tone "Or you either."

"I'm done with both of you."

* * *

Later, an an unknown location...

Kevin hopped off a truck that was driving down an empty desert road. He rolled as he hit the pavement.

He saw a chain link fence that had a hole cut in it that was big enough for him to crawl through. On the other side of the fence were many old aircraft in various states of either decay of disassembly.

As Kevin made his way deeper and deeper into the airplane graveyard, he began to be followed by a group of small, twelve year old sized aliens that had red and black jumpsuits with silver eyes that had yellow lenses. The clothing these aliens wore was red on the mask, gloves, waist, and boots, and black on the shirt and pants. They let out a series of monkey like chatters as the group that followed Kevin grew larger. The sounds they made were produced when they clicked their teeth together.

Five of the aliens who held silver pickaxes got in front of Kevin. The aliens, which are referred to as Pickaxe Aliens, surrounded Kevin.

"Take me to the boss." Kevin said.

The Pickaxe aliens led Kevin to an old hangar. The door was opened and Kevin stepped in. The first thing Kevin saw were Vulcanus' yellow eyes. The Detrovite sat upon what seemed to be a makeshift throne.

"I hear you're looking for me Vulkanus." Kevin said. "Well here I am."

A large group of Pickaxe aliens stood behind Kevin.

"Kevin Levin." Vulkanus said. "I can't decide whether to trade with you or tear you to pieces." Vulkanus was obviously pissed at Kevin. "Remember that counterfeit isotope scam two years ago?"

"Yeah... Sorry about that." Kevin said awkwardly.

"You left me holding the bag, and at the mercy of the Plumbers." Vulkanus explained. "I escaped, but now I'm stuck on earth, swapping level three tech to get by; thanks to you." Vulkanus pounded his fist on the side of his thrown.

"It's in the past." Kevin said, trying to brush off the times he screwed Vulkanus over. "I'm here to make a deal."

"I have the plumber gadget you want." Vulkanus stood up and showed Kevin a hologram projector that he held in his thumb and index finger. "What're you gonna give me for it?"

"Look, to be completely straight, I had this stack of Plumber technology, but I lost it."

"You want to owe me?" Vulkanus had expected this to happen.

"Tell me what I have to do to get it." As Kevin spoke, the Pickaxe Aliens closed in.

Vulkanus thought this over before holding out his hand.

Kevin thought they were gonna shake on it, but that changed when Vulkanus closed his hand, grabbing onto Kevin's arm and began to squeeze. "Kneel." Vulkanus said as he glared at Kevin.

Kevin fell to his knees as he rubbed his sore arm. A compartment opened up from the floor. Up from it rose a single large gem that resembled the crystal that Diamondhead was made out of.

It was supported on a stand made out of what looked like metalic bandages. They glowed blue before reaching over to Kevin's hand and started pulling him towards it. Kevin was trying to resist, but eventually, his hand grabbed onto the crystal before he was forced to take on its properties.

"First you're gonna pay me back for the double cross." Vulkanus said as Kevin's hands grey thicker as they became similar to Diamondhead.

"I can't stop absorbing." Kevin groaned as the crystal made its way to his back, where large shards started to grow out of him.

"That's because I don't want you to." Vulkanus explained. "You're recursively absorbing a piece of Taydenite, the rarest, most precious living gem in the galaxy."

A group of the Pickaxe Aliens pushed the immobile Kevin back. Kevin was kept still by hand restraints that came up from the floor and closed around his wrists. Kevin gasped in agony as more and more shards grew larger and larger on his back.

"This is the only piece of Taydenite in this spiral of the Milky Way." Vulkanus explained. "Or it was." Vulkanus turned his attention to Kevin. "Until you came along."

Kevin groaned as even his head was covered with Taydenite. "You're scum." Kevin groaned as he became bulkier. The crystals on his back grew larger as Kevin groaned in agony.

The Pickaxe Aliens climbed up Kevin's limbs and onto his back. Kevin could only helplessly look on in horror.

"You owe me." Vulkanus said. "I'm gonna take it out of your hide, then sell you off. Piece by piece."

The Pickaxe aliens began to hack at the large crystals, making smaller pieces fall off and into a hovering minecart. Soon, the cart was full and a new one was moved into position. A second cart was to the left of Kevin as the process began.

"And I'm gonna do it for the rest of you natural life, and then some."

"Do what you want to me. When Jack Tennyson gets that holo-" Kevin grunted before Vulkanus started to laugh.

"Hahaha!" Vulkanus flicked the projector to the other side of the hangar. "You're in a bad position to make demands."

"He would be if he was alone." Big Chill said. "But he's with us."

Vulkanus looked to the left to see Big Chill and Gwen standing besides a bunch of crates.

"You followed me?" Kevin panted, unable to believe that Jack and Gwen came to save him.

"That whole 'get mad and storm off act'. Please." Big chill's green eyes became half circles as he waved his right arm. "I've seen Arcee do it a thousand times."

"You have friends?" Vulkanus stood up. "Had friends." Vulkanus reached behind him and pulled a blaster from his belt. He pulled the trigger and fired a beam of flames at Big Chill, who was hit.

Gwen groaned as she was knocked over by Big Chill, who went sailing into a bunch of crates.

The Pickaxe Aliens stopped mining and jumped off of Kevin and went after Gwen. Their picks glowed blue as one of them swung at the red head. She dodged it and kicked it away. She then grabbed one of the Pickaxe Aliens with a beam of mana and used it to knock over a trio of them. One of them ran at Gwen with an energized pickaxe, but Gwen blocked its blows with walls of mana, that were destroyed when the pick hit them. She kept of blocking the alien's attacks as more ran up to her.

Vulkanus meanwhile stormed over to the stack of crates. He knocked them to the side as he made his way to where he thought Big Chill would be writhing on the ground in pain. He pointed his gun at the spot, but saw nothing.

Big Chill was up at the ceiling looking down at Vulkanus while invisible. He turned visible as he flew at Vulkanus, who turned and fired his gun at the Necrofriggian, but Big Chill let out an icy breath which froze up the gun that he was using.

Vulkanus ran up to Big chill and was intent on punching him, but Jack's Necrofriggian form turned intangible, which caused his fist to pass right through him. What Vulkanus punched instead of his foe was a computer, which sparked and emitted smoke.

"Good way to break your hand." Vulkanus looked to see that Big Chill was right. "Told you so." Vulkanus' hand was totaled. But it wasn't a mess of bone and flesh, rather it was heap of metal and wires. Oil from his broken hand squirted onto Vulkanus' face.

"You wouldn't even be fighting if you knew what he did to me!" Vulkanus shouted.

"He stole. He ran. That's Kevin."

Vulkanus glared at Big Chill before squirting some oil at his face, causing the Necrofriggian to cough, which allowed the detrovite to deliver a left hook that sent Big Chill flying back into a concrete pillar before hitting the floor with a thud.

Gwen block two more blows from the Pickaxe Aliens. She flung a bolt of mana at the alien's tool, knocking the head of the pick off, causing it to spark then explode, knocking out it and those around it. Seven more of them charged at Gwen. She jumped over the group, effortlessly getting over all of them.

When they turned around and raised their picks to charge at her and knock attack her, Gwen fired a bolt of mana a the pick of the one closest to her, which caused it to explode, causing a chain reaction that disarmed and knocked out the whole group. Gwen then ran over to go help Jack.

Big Chill groaned as he tried to get up. His folded up wings were grabbed by Vulkanus.

"I'm the injured party here! After you, your grandfather, the fat one, and his girlfriend beat me, the Plumbers came after me and blew up my ship!" Vulkanus growled, bringing up a past encounter with Jack.

Big Chill suddenly looked up and grinned. He exhaled at Vulkanus, causing him to let go.

"Urgh!" Vulkanus groaned.

Big Chill turned intangible and flew into Vulkanus. He then flew out, leaving a patch of ice where he entered and exited. He continued to repeat that cycle, coating Vulkanus' body in more and more ice.

"What're doing?" Vulkanus asked as he raised his hand up in an attempt to grab at Big Chill, who exit from it before it was encased in ice in its entirety.

The ice started to crack as the armor started to break apart. Seconds later, it explode, leaving Vulkanus in his current form, which was an orange skinned humanoid with the proportions of an infant(diaper included) with Vulkanus' normal head, chin spikes and all.

Vulkanus ran away from Big Chill as he landed, going past Kevin, who looked at Vulkanus run past him.

"Kevin!" Gwen said as she ran up to the crystal covered man. She fired a beam of mana out of each of her hands, destroying the cuffs that held Kevin on the ground. "Are you alright?" She touched her hands to his face. Kevin started to sparkle as the crystals on his back started to shrink. He eventually returned to normal, but his shirt and pants were torn.

Kevin groaned as he was about to fall over, but he grabbed onto Gwen's shoulders to keep himself from falling over.

Big Chill returned to normal in a flash of green light. Jack walked over to Kevin and Gwen.

"Easy." Gwen said as she helped Kevin up.

"What about him?" Jack asked as he looked over his shoulder to see Vulkanus doing a Scrouge Mcduck and was wading in the Taydenite that he mined off of Kevin.

"What about him?" Kevin decided to let him be. "We're even."

As the trio made their way out, Kevin remembered something.

"Wait!" Kevin picked up the hologram projector.

"That's what you were after?"

"Another holo viewer?" Gwen shared her cousin's uncertainty.

"I hear this one's special." Kevin handed it to Jack.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack asked.

"Think about it. You may not know it Jack, but I'm an ex-con. I've done a lot of stuff that I'm not proud of. Stuff that if you knew, you'd probably never trust me again." Kevin said with mild anger and frustration. "So next time I say drop it, drop it."

"That's not how it works Kevin." Gwen said supportingly. She placed her hand onto Kevin's shoulder.

"It's not what you did that matters, but what you're going to do." Jack added.

"Uh huh." Kevin said. "You gonna look at that?"

Jack pressed the button on the side. A hologram of Grandpa Max appeared.

"Jack, if you found this message then you must be in pretty deep." Max said. "There's a lot I can't reveal yet, but here's one thing I can; you can't go in alone. By now, you're probably meeting some of the other Plumbers' kids, but you have to find more. You need to put together a team." The message ended.

Jack was determined to do whatever he needed to do to stop whatever was coming.

Chapter end.

* * *

Author's note: Nothing to report here story wise, well except for the fact that this was my favorite episode of season one of Alien Force.(BTW, my favorite episode of season two is Alone Together due to the interactions between Ben and Reinrassic. And my favorite episode of season three is Con of Rath due to Rath being my favorite of all Ben's aliens.)

In Kamen Rider related news, the appearance of the next Rider, Ex-Aid. And I for one am legitimately unsure of what I'm looking at. With the riders that were announced while I was a fan of the show, you could tell what their motif was by looking at them; Gaim' visor, weapons, and armor all seemed to be based off of fruit. Drive had a tire for a sash, which betrayed his car motif. Ghost's belt and color scheme betrayed his supernatural theme. But Ex-Aid I think is going to be based off of Anime, but his belt looks like a combination of the Fourze Driver and Genesis Driver, which along with what might be his gun being shaped like a popsicle, I seriously don't know what to think. I was expecting a search and rescue theme rider, but that would be too similar to Drive. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Speaking of Drive, there's a poll relating to him on my profile page.[Subject to change]

In non Kamen Rider news, but still strangely related news, one of the new Pokemon that'll be introduced in Sun and Moon might be perhaps the saddest pokemon ever. It's called Mimikkyu. It's a Pokemon that wears a twenty year old Pikachu item as a costume so that it can be loved like Pikachu. And even if it doesn't take Cubone's spot as the saddest Pokemon, it's still going to be the most meta one out there.


	6. 5 Falling Star

Pre-chapter Author's Note: I'm truly sorry that I wasn't able to update this story that much over the past few months. Between college, watching and playing Pokemon(on the 3DS, not Pokemon Go), trying to make sense of why Kamen Rider Ex-Aid is video game themed when Zyuohger is already has that motif, to rewatching episodes of Ben 10 Alien Force, trying to get through season one of the show, I don't know if I've said it, but I don't like season one, with the exception of the episodes Paradox, Kevin's Big Score, What Little Girls Are Made Of, and X=Ben+2. My main problem with Alien Force season one was that the vast majority of it took place at night, making details hard to see. But I don't hate it, as it makes sense in context, seeing as they're not on summer vacation, they're saving the world on a school night, and Ben hasn't dropped out of school yet. No joke. I honestly think Ben dropped out of school by the time Omniverse rolled around. We never hear him complain about grades once. Unless he graduated early, which would only make sense if a) The school administrators didn't want to deal with the threat of the school being demolished on a regular basis; or b) Ben's a lot smarter than we give him credit for. *Looks at decisions Ben made during Alien Force season 3 and beyond* I got nothing. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that with Jack, seeing as he's nineteen, and a senior in highschool. His plans for life after high school changed drastically when he got the Omnitrix back about a year ago IRL, only to go back to some semblance of normal in the aftermath of Shocker's defeat in Team Prime vs Shocker. But as to Jack being older, well that's actually rather minor compared to what I have in store for Beyond Prime(the title for the story that will combine the events of Omniverse and Drive). As to what I mean, I'm dropping a hint in this chapter. It's not gonna be hidden or anything. It's meant to be a joke between the Storyteller and one of the voices in his head(me). Oh shit! I really got off topic. Okay. Now that that's out of the way, on with the show.

Unknown location, nighttime...

A young woman wearing a white blouse and black shorts was standing on the front porch of a large mansion. "Let me in!" She shouted as she banged on the large wooden doors. "I need to see you." She fell to one knee. Her hand slid down the door. "Please."

The lights clicked on. The doors rumbled before creaking as they opened. Inside the mansion, it was dark. It was the perfect cover for the limbless horror that leaped out of the darkness and attacked the woman.

Later, in a suburban neighborhood...

Three teens, one girl and two boys, one of which was the girl's boyfriend, were standing under at the end of a driveway in front of one of their houses.

"So, um, I'll meet you guys at the library after dinner." One of the boys said. "About 7:30?"

Walking towards them was the girl from earlier, only she seemed a lot whiter than usual. Although her skin tone seemed to be more of a grey as opposed to white.

"You better." The girl said as the grey one stumbled towards them. "If I don't get a "B" on my next -" She stopped mid sentence when they heard the groaning that the grey skinned girl made as she staggered towards the three of them. They three young adults gasped and got out of the way, as to allow the creepy girl to walk between them so that they could ignore them.

"Aah!" They shouted as the girl passed them.

If one were to look at the grey one, they would find that her skin seemed to be wrinkled, almost as if she had the life drained out of her. They were black circles around her nearly dead eyes. She continued to wander aimlessly down the sidewalk, groaning as she did.

Meanwhile...

At a convenience store, Jack and Kevin were waiting by the car while Gwen was off doing something else. Kevin was leaning on the side of his car drinking a soda while Jack sat on the curb. He was once again listening to the message he had gotten from his grandfather a few days ago.

"You can't go it alone." The hologram of Max said. "By now you're probably meeting some of the other Plumbers' kids, but you have to find more. You need to put together a team." The message ended. Jack hit the play button to start it again. The disk beeped before the hologram played again. "If you found this message, you must be in pretty deep. There's a lot I can't reveal yet, but here's one thing I can - you can't go it alone. By now you're probably meeting some of the other Plumbers' kids, but you have to find more."

Gwen walked up to Kevin, who started to slurp his soda rather loudly. "Think we should be worried about him? He's been watching that thing for hours." Kevin asked before taking another sip. He slurped his soda before looking at Gwen, who seemed to be displeased. "Problem?"

"Why haven't you asked me out?" Gwen asked.

"What?!" Kevin asked, unsure as to why Gwen was asking this.

"You heard me." Gwen responded. "We spend all of our time together, and you obviously like me." She said. Kevin scoffed, trying to hide the truth to keep up his 'tough guy' facade. "You do."

"I see you mooning at me when you think I'm not looking."

"Mooning?" Kevin was just as confused as I was when it came to the wording the Gwen used.

"And I like you - most of the time." Gwen said, knowing that Kevin was pretty shady. "So I'm asking you again."

"See? That's the problem - you're asking me." Kevin said. Obviously he's never heard of a Sadie Hawkins dance. "A guy does the asking." Again, Sadie Hawkins dance.

* * *

{We interrupt this Power of Ten chapter for a breaking of the fourth wall.}

[Story Writer: Hey Storyteller, make sure you tell the kids about the other girl who has a thing for an oblivious guy. You know, the one who's trying to catch them all, but can never seem to get any?]

(Storyteller: Wish I could, but we're not to that point in the story. Could you try to get these chapters out faster than the decay rate of Sulfur-35? Wait. He never claimed to be trying to do that, but I gotta agree with you on that second one.)

[Story Writer: Been trying to. I've been busy is all. Also, let's agree to not bring that second one up ever again.]

(Storyteller: Agreed.)

Rook Sigma: Mister Storyteller, who are you talking to?

(Storyteller: The voice that controls all.)

* * *

"Yeah? When?" Gwen asked.

After a few moments of staring at eachother, Kevin responded. "Don't push me."

Gwen glared at Kevin slightly before saying: "Don't push me." In a mocking tone. Gwen then turned and walked off.

Kevin turned his attention to Jack, who was still listening to the message. "Jack."

"There's a lot I can't reveal yet. You can't go it alone." The hologram of Max repeated.

"You know, my dog used to gnaw at a spot on his butt over and over." Kevin said as Jack mindlessly watched the recording, trying to find some sort of meaning to the hologram. "The vet made us put a cone around his neck."

"You need to put together a team." The hologram said before Jack switched the message off.

"Easy does it." Jack said, turning his head to face Kevin. "I'm not the one you're mad at." He stood up and walked over to the trio's ride.

"Cut me a break here." Kevin said. "You want to go fight some aliens or something?" Kevin asked, wanting to do something else.

"Or something." Jack said, holding out his hand. "Let me see your Plumber's badge."

Kevin handed Jack the Omnitrix dial shaped device to Jack. He pressed the button that projected a map of the city and the nearby area. On it were several dots that were blinking.

"Each of these blips shows the location of another badge."

"Yep." Kevin leaned in to see the map more close up.

"And where there's a Plumber's badge, we'll find a Plumber - or, at least, a Plumber's kid." Jack pocketed the badge and got in passenger seat of Kevin's muscle car. "Come on. You're driving."

Before Kevin went to get in, he looked to see Gwen leaning against a lamp pole.

"You coming?" Kevin asked. Gwen turned her head. She walked over to the car and got in without saying a word.

Later, on the road...

"Plumber." Gwen said while Kevin focused on the road while Jack focused on the map. "Plumber, Plumber, Plumber." She repeated. "You ever notice that if you say a word enough times, it loses its meaning?" She asked, leaning forward a bit. "Like a chance to ask someone out." She said rather snarkily. "Every time that chance comes along, it has less and less meaning, until you don't have the chance anymore at all."

Kevin was beginning to get annoyed by Gwen's passive aggressive complaining, his eyes showing more and more frustration as she went on. "Oh, for crying out loud."

Turning his head to look at Gwen, Jack asked: "Are you guys having a fight?" That had been one of the few times in the past half hour where he had looked up from the map.

As they drove down the highway, a black girl walked down the sidewalk. She was going towards the long bridge that the that the Tennyson duo and Kevin were currently on.

Unsteady on her feet, the young woman's legs shook rapidly before they gave out. Fortunately, she was able to steady herself, but sadly, she had unconsciously turned to the left and started walking out into traffic.

The horn of a car blared as the driver of that car swerved suddenly to avoid ramming into her. The driver of that car drove off without incident, no doubt swearing about those 'god damn teenagers.'

However, the next vehicle to head in her direction would not be as easy to avoid.

Rolling around a turn in the road was a cab over engine style tractor trailer. The driver gasped when he saw the girl in the road. Turning the steering wheel rapidly, the tires screech as he fought to turn his rig so that he wouldn't have the death of a human on his conscious. However, it seems he thought too hard, as evident by the truck leaving the surface of the road and sliding into the support pillar that held a bridge up.

Traffic stopped when the road started to collapse. As parts of the bridge started to slowly crumble away, the occupants of the cars that they were on were stuck on there with no way of safely getting out of harm's way.

Jack, Gwen, and Kevin ran out of Kevin's car, which had stopped at the end of the group of cars that had yet to cross over the bridge. They ran over to the guard rail and saw what had happened.

They couldn't see it from their vantage point, nor could they hear it, but while they observed the disaster area, the driver of the crashed semi truck was breathing heavily. Kevin ran off to a ladder used for maintenance and sprinted over to the truck. Jack saw the bridge give way slightly, which caused one of the cars to slid towards the edge. "Gwen!" He shouted.

His cousin went into action instantly. She ran towards the collapsing section of bridge on platforms of mana.

She didn't make it to the car in time. The barrier gave way and the car fell. "Aaaaaah!" The young couple screamed as their vehicle fell.

"Heyah!" Gwen grunted as she generated a smooth plane of mana that allowed the car to slide down gently to the ground.

As the bridge collapsed more and more, people exited their cars, all the while motorists continued to drive past the crashed semi with no regard for the danger that they were placing themselves in.

The people who exited their cars walked towards Gwen. Suddenly, a section of concrete gave way, causing the man standing upon it to fall, but not before Gwen caught him with a slide of mana that she used to get him to ground level. The people used the suddenly appearing ramp to get off the bridge, as in this scenario, one would be large idiot to argue with good fortune.

The Omnitrix beeped as Jack selected one of his aliens. He turned the dial until he got to one that would probably help out. "Humungousaur!" The Vaxasaurian announced. He grunted as he jumped off of the bridge and landed on the ground before turning and heading down to the overpass and then headed to the part of the overpass that was suffering the most damage. He increased his size to hold the bridge up, the process of which was being caught on video by an unknown person.

Kevin, over at the the semi truck, turned his arms into steel before using his enhanced strength to pull the roof of the cab off.

Humungousaur grunted as the job got harder and harder for him to accomplish. "Get everyone down. I can't hold this together much longer." He said to Gwen.

As Gwen helped people off of the bridge, Gwen looked and saw the girl who had been the cause of this accident. "The girl!" She shouted.

"Jack!" Kevin shouted as he lifted the driver out of the cab.

"Handsfull!" Humungousaur grunted.

A man was driving down the road at the highway's normal speed limit. He gasped when he saw the girl just standing out in the middle of the street. He blared his horn as he slammed on the brakes. But that wouldn't be enough. He was gonna run her down. Or he would if she wasn't caught by a flying man who wore black, brown, and tan. He was flying not by mechanical means, but rather mystical ones, as evident by an aura that radiated around him that glowed the color of his hair, an electric gold.

When Humungousaur and Gwen saw what had happened, they looked at the flying man with awe. Admittedly, it's not something they're used to seeing. Flying robots, pretty normal for them. Flying aliens, Jack at one point could turn into several of those.

Kevin however was still getting the driver of the semi truck out of his rig, which was starting to catch fire. He had to work fast in order to get the driver to safety.

The last people were sliding down the ramp that Gwen made. When the last bystander was clear, Gwen said: "Everyone's okay."

Humungousaur grunted before he let the bridge collapse behind him, making sure to keep it from crushing any civilians. Knowing from multiple past experiences involving burning vehicles, Humungousaur allowed the rubble from the bridge to fall onto the burning big rig, proving that rock beats fire. _[Hmmm I just got an idea. Be back in a sec. There. The first chapter of SCPT Secure Contain Protect Transform should be uploaded by now. Chapter one is gonna be on SCP-2984.]_ Humungousaur shruck back down to his normal size before reverting back to Jack. The teen ran over to where the flying man, named Michael Morningstar, landed.

The girl was sitting on the ground, he back held up by Michael. She opened her eyes and said with a stutter: "I-I have to get out of here. I was running, and I -" Her voice then became to shaky to understand.

"It's okay, Trina." Michael said, trying to reassure his friend [I hope Trina's his friend] that things were gonna be alright. "You're safe now. These guys saved you."

Always one to give credit to those who deserve it, Jack said: "Your friend's the one who saved you. He's just being modest."

After making sure that Trina could keep herself stable, Michael stood up and approached the Tennysons and their pet juvenile delinquent. "Whoever you guys are, whatever you are, thanks. Something strange has been happening to the girls at our school lately."

"Glad to help." Jack said. "We made a good team out there." Jack noticed something that was on Michael's waste. "You've got a Plumber's badge."

Michael tilted the badge up to view it. "Yeah, my dad gave it to me." Michael explained. "You guys know about the Plumbers?"

"At this point, we may as well be them." Kevin pulled the badge that he got off of Labrid's body out of his pocket.

"I'm Jack. This is Kevin and my cousin Gwen." Jack said while pointing at the two who were helping him in his hero work.

"Wait." Michael said. "Jack as in Jack Tennyson?" The half alien young adult was having a bit of a restrained fanboy moment. He approached Jack and raised his hand. "I am a huge fan of yours." The two of them shook hands. "But I heard you disappeared." Michael explained. "I'm Mike Morningstar." He shook hands with Kevin and then Gwen, the latter causing a rather strange reaction that caused literal sparks to come off of their hands.

"Oh! Wow." Gwen said in a manner that was less 'What the hell just happened?' but rather more along the lines of 'that was a thing.' Regardless, she responded in the absolute wrong way.

"That's never happened before." Michael said, making it rather convincing that he was confused.

"Maybe it's because we both have powers?" Gwen reasoned.

With a raised brow, Michael responded with: "That's a theory." It's a bad theory, but a theory nonetheless.

"Anyway, now that we all met." Kevin said in a manner that suggested that wanted to get done with this as soon as possible.

Glancing in Kevin's direction, Michael scowled slightly. "I should make sure Trina gets home okay." The group turned to see Trina rubbing her head. "But after that, why don't we meet up at my place and talk?" He asked.

"Sure." Jack said, giving Michael a thumbs up Kuuga style.

"Sounds good." Gwen shared her cousin's enthusiasm.

Due to Kevin's response of: "Can't wait." one could say that he was at least less than eager to go to this guy's house. Kevin scoffed as Michael walked over to Trini. He picked her up and flew off.

A strange, star shaped tattoo like mark was present on Trini's arm. However, said marking would be unnoticable under most circumstances.

Later, at the Morningstar estate...

"Mom and her new husband live in the main house." Michael explained as he led Jack and the gang past a large mansion. "They leave me alone, let me do what I want." Michael said after opening up the front door to a smaller mansion that was still pretty big if you compare it to the average house.

"Cool." Jack said, showing both his interest in Michael's situation where his mom wasn't bearing down on him like June did with him (although lately, June's let Jack off the leash so to speak). But Jack was also admiring the scale of Michael's house, it seeming incredibly big, with plenty of space.

"After you." Michael said, letting Gwen and Jack get in before slamming the door on Kevin, but as to whether or not it was intentional was unclear.

"Ugh!" Kevin groaned as the door struck him. He opened the door and stormed in, rubbing his nose while groaning: "Nice." under his breath. He slammed the door then followed the others.

The trio was lead to a large room that was set up as a sort of command center. "What is all this stuff?" Jack asked after looking around.

"Some of my dad's Plumber's gear." Michael responded. "I brought it over from his headquarters." He then leaned in towards Gwen slightly and said: "I could take you there later if you want."

"We'd all like to see it." Jack said, not taking into account Kevin's disdain for Michael.

"It'd make my day." Kevin half hissed, half growled.

"Here - let me show you something." Michael to hold of Gwen's wrist and guider her to what appeared to be a holographic screen. On it were various operations that were performing tasks of various levels of uselessness, as the computer wasn't in use at the moment."

While Michael walked Gwen over to the screen, Kevin looked at Michael with a mix of anger and jealousy.

"I'm patched into the central Plumbers monitoring network." Michael explained. He turned away from the trio to focus on the computer. "It's connected to everything - global and interplanetary internet, Earthbound law-enforcement frequencies - oh, and, of course, the badge communicator channel."

"Communicator channel?" Kevin asked, not knowing that the badges could function like that.

"Yeah. You did know the badges are communicators, didn't you?" Michael was unaware that technically, Kevin had stolen the badge that he was using.

Kevin remained quiet, not responding to the question.

Gwen broke the silence. "So, you keep an eye on things with this stuff and use your powers to help people?" She asked. "You're like your neighborhood's very own superhero."

"Never thought of it that way," Michael shrugged. "but I guess so."

"You know what I'm thinking?" Jack asked. He walked over to Michael and Gwen.

"I know what I'm thinking." Kevin grumbled.

"You should join our team." Jack offered. Hearing this caused a slight grin to appear on Michael's face.

"Don't you think we should - I don't know - get to know this guy a little more?" Kevin stumbled in his speech due to his distrust of Michael.

Jack on the other hand felt as though Kevin's fears were unfounded. "What's to know?" Jack asked. "He's got the powers. He's got the gear."

"He's got a sparkly trail when he flies." Kevin added, though one could question why that was brought up.

Jack added one more thing to his side of the argument. "And it's what grandpa told us to do." Jack turned to Michael and explained what he meant. "My Grandpa Max was a Plumber, and he disappeared looking into this big alien conspiracy that's going on against Earth." Jack said. "We're trying to find him so we can stop it. Want to help?"

Michael looked at Gwen, who smiled when he saw her. He responded with: "I'd love to."

An electric whirring was heard as the lights flickered. After several seconds of that, they went off, but came back on seconds later.

"Forgot to pay your electric bill?" Kevin asked in a mocking way.

"The electricity's been a little undependable lately." Michael explained. "No worries. My backup generator kicked in."

Jack knew that something wasn't quite right. "This isn't a brownout. Look at this spike in power usage at the local power substation." Jack said, pointing to the monitor. "The energy drain is enormous."

Michael was unaware that Jack had knowledge of such things and responded by asking: "Really?"

"You said something strange was happening in town. This definitely qualifies." The teen hero said.

"If you need to check it out, we'll help." Gwen said, offering to tag along.

"Thanks." Michael grinned. "We should."

As the four were about to exit the computer room and make their way out of the mansion, Gwen noticed in the corner of her eye, a blue mark on her right forearm. She turn her arm to see a blue circle that in the middle of it was an area that was shaped like an eight pointed star that was unmarked skin. Gwen gasped when she saw the marking.

Later at the substation...

Approaching a gate that had keep out sign, Jack grabbed the padlock that was attached to a chain. Normally it was supposed to be locked, but it wasn't. Someone, or something was at the power plant.

"Stay sharp. We've got company." Jack explained, keeping his voice soft to keep the element of surprise.

The sound of buzzing was heard. However, it wasn't bugs that were doing the buzzing, it was more electic in nature.

"Sounds like that buzzing sound you always hear in old monster movies." Michael said.

"Any time you hear a sound and your only reference is monster movies, it's a good idea to walk the other way." Kevin responded.

"Good rule of thumb." Jack said. "I'll keep that in mind next time Miko tells me she heard something in the base.

The buzzing intensified as the four of them made their way to the source of the noise. It reached it loudest when they got to a corner and saw a girl standing between what looked like two tesla coils, getting zapped by electricity while her arms were held up like lightning rods. The girl wore a white blouse and a black skirt. Her skin was grey and wrinkly and her hair black.

She removed her hands from the bolts of electricity when she saw Jack and co. She bent her back, couched a bit and groaned. She turned to the right and dashed over to a generator. She grabbed a hold of it and picked it up and lifted it over her head and threw it at Jack and the others.

Gwen stepped forward and waved her hand, creating a barrier of mana that she used to block the object from crushing the group.

Gwen stepped back when the, voodoo zombie girl started to walk towards them. She was joined by three more, who seemed to come out of nowhere. The four zombies grew nearer towards the heroes.

"The girls here - kind of weird." Jack said as the girls grew closer towards them.

"They're wearing uniforms from my school, but I don't recognize them." Michael added.

One of the girls grabbed a signpost and with a bit of effort, managed to pull it out of the ground. She was gonna use it as a weapon against the four.

Michael held out his hands and fired energy bolts at the girls' feet, they golden rays knocking them back a bit.

"Energy bolts - nice!" Jack was impressed with what Michael could do.

"Try not to hurt them!" Michael shouted. "Maybe we can reverse this whatever it is." He seemed all too eager to safeguard what were basically monsters that were most likely gonna kill them and consume their flesh. A thought that was most likely running through Kevin's mind.

All four of the girls hissed as they ran at the heroes. The one who was armed squng her makeshift mace at Kevin.

"Try not to hurt them?" Kevin asked with frustration as he narrowly avoided getting struck by the chunk of concrete.

Michael flew off. Gwen used a band of mana to toss the girl that attacked her away.

Jack ducked to avoid being clawed by one of them. He rolled to the side and got up to put some distance between himself and his attacker.

The one that was attacking Kevin kept swinging the pipe at him, none of the hits connecting.

Kevin was back against a pipe. While the girl got ready to swing at him again, Kevin touched the pipe and took on its properties. She swung at Kevin. The pipe only shook him abit. Kevin then grabbed the pipe in his metal hand and shook it, knocking the girl to the ground.

Jack's left arm was being grabbed by one of them. He was being forced back towards a generator, but he kicked his attacked off of him. Jack had his back towards the generator while his attacker was merely dazed.

She screeched before running him. Jack got out of the way, and he was glad he did. She punched the fuze box, her fist going right through it. With equal ease, she pulled the lid off of the fuze box and flung it to the side. She grabbed one of the cables and walked towards Jack with the sparking wire.

He activated the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Chromastone!" Jack announced in his crystalsapien form. The girl touched the cable to Cromastone's body, but it wasn't doing anything. "That's not going to work. I'm a conductor." Chromastone grabbed hold of the arm that held the cable. Due to that form's chemical properties, Chromastone was able to send the voltage of the cable through his arm and into whatever he touched, which zapped the zombie girl, and sent her back. When she landed, she gasped and wheezed a bit before passing out.

Michael was in the air, a golden aura surrounding him. He fired bolts of energy out of his hands at two of the zombies who were running towards Gwen.

The redhead grabbed them with four streams of mana which tied them up. However, that wouldn't work for long.

As Gwen's hand shook, the magenta beams turned to black, starting from around the two girls and heading to Gwen's hand. The binds crumbled, dropping the two that she had tried to restrain to the ground.

Gwen groaned as her legs gave out due to the power drain. Michael saw this and flew over to catch her to stop her from smashing her head on the concrete.

"Are you alright?" Michael asked while he helped Gwen back to her feet.

Gwen rubbed the side of her head while saying: "I don't know. I-I felt weak for a second." She looked at Michael. "I feel better now."

Michael glew gold. He grasped Gwen's hand with both of his. "Here - hold my hand. Use my energy."

Both of them were bathed in a golden aura that emanated in the space around them.

The two zombified girls hissed at Gwen and Michael before they charged at them. Gwen thrust her left hand forward, flinging twin bolts of mana at the two, sending them a good distance and knocking them off their feet.

Michael took air at a collection of ventilation pipes that were above the two girls. He fired a bolt of gold energy at it, causing a large amount of debris to fall between the two girls and Gwen and Michael. The feral teens hissed before turning and high tailed it out of there.

Kevin saw that the two of them were fleeing, and like most people knew that that was a bad thing. "Aw, nice going. They're getting away." He groaned, pointing at the fleeing duo.

"Sorry." Michael responded with a strange lack of concern.

Chromastone walked up to the three of them before reverting back to his human state. "It's okay. We all make mistakes." Jack said. "The important thing is, we stopped them from doing whatever it is they were doing." Jack said that with a rather unsteady word flow due to the confusion he had as to why they had even attacked to begin with. Kevin raised an eyebrow in mild frustration. "We'll get better as we work together more."

Turning to face Gwen, Michael said in response to Jack's statement: "We do make a good team."

Gwen rather simply responded with an: "Uh-huh."

Kevin came up to Gwen. "What happened just now?" He asked, showing aggressive concern. "You looked like you were gonna faint."

Gwen glanced at Kevin for a few seconds before responding to Michael. "I can't thank you enough for helping me."

"You could if you had dinner with me."

"Right now?" Gwen asked.

"I'm hungry now. How about you?"

"I was just gonna suggest the same thing."

Kevin glared at Morningstar. He kinda lost his cool. "Okay. What is up with you? You've been ignoring me ever since we got here, you were lousy in the fight, and now you're just acting goofy." Kevin vented.

"Why are you pretending to care?" Gwen mocked. She and Michael walked off. "Later."

"You just gonna stand there?" Kevin asked Jack as he just stood there and did nothing while that happened.

"No, I was going to go sit in the car." Jack said before walking away from Kevin.

Kevin fast walked to catch up to Jack. "I don't trust this guy, and I don't think you should have been so quick to make him one of the team."

Jack turned his head to to face Kevin. He had a grin on his face. "Admit it - you're just jealous because Gwen likes him."

"You know what? It's fine." Kevin said, a smile forming on his face.

Back at Michael's house.

Kevin and Jack exited the car. Kevin went up the steps and approached the door. Knowing that Michael most likely locked the door to his house, Kevin touched the doorknob and turned his hand into the metal that it wa made of. He stuck his now metal finger into the key hole and wiggled it around, trying to pick the lock.

Jack was actually shocked at what Kevin was doing. "This is why you changed your mind about Mike going off with Gwen - so we could spy on him?"

"Yep." Came Kevin's reply.

"Well just stop!" Jack loudly groaned.

"He ain't right, Jack." Kevin said. "You and the bots should know to not trust the new guy." Kevin brought up the incident with the fake Wheeljack. "And if you're not gonna check him out, I will."

"You're going about this the wrong way Kevin." Jack grabbed ahold of Kevin's forearm and dragged him away from the door. "Step away from the door and we can have Fowler looked at the guy."

Kevin was frustrated with how Jack was acting. "You really want to fight me over some new guy? That's how you're gonna build a team?" The door creaked as it opened. "And they said I didn't learn anything in prison."

"Kevin!" Jack hissed at Kevin.

"Is Mike home?" Jack and Kevin turned to see Trina, the girl that caused a massive traffic accident stumble into the light of a street lamp. "He hasn't called me back since you and that new girl showed up."

Kevin and Jack looked at each other then back to the teen. "Uh, Trina, right?" Trina nodded.  
"Yeah, Morningstar ain't here right now." Trina took two steps forward. Her head tilted. Kevin had to come up with something that justified breaking into someone's house. "We're just picking up some stuff for him." Jack had an awkward smile on his face.

"Then you know where he is. Can you take me?" Trina asked, her voice showing desperation. She had walked up the steps and held out her hand, her arm shaking.

Jack had seen what addiction looked like due to his mom bringing him to work several times in the past. "No!" He shouted sharply. "I mean he's busy." He said in a softer, yet still firm tone.

Trina was very determined. "I need to see him." She said. "Why won't he see me?" To some, it was like Trina needed, or thought she needed to be around Morningstar.

Kevin looked at Trina's arm and saw the strange tattoo that was on Gwen. "Where did you get those marks on your arm?" Trina glanced to the right then shrugged. Kevin brought Jack closer and whispered: "I saw those same marks on that zombie girl that tried to tenderize me."

"I just want to see Mike." Trina moaned.

"Yeah, I get that." Kevin fumed at Trina. "Call me crazy, but is it possible Morningstar's the one making these girls this way?" He asked Jack.

Jack looked up before saying: "You're crazy."

Kevin glanced over his shoulder and saw that Trina had gotten closer. "'Scuse us." He and Jack went to the far end of the porch. "Look, it didn't really hit me till just now, but Gwen's been wearing her sleeves lower than usual. She was hiding something."

Jack looked at Trina and saw that her arms were covered in those marks. "You're saying Gwen has marks like that on her arms?"

Trina walked past Kevin and Jack and went into Michael's house.

"I didn't see them for sure, but it makes sense."

Jack paced back and forth while he thought it over. "Come to think of it, Trina was all weak and wobbly when we first saw her on the highway." In his mind, Jack was beginning to think that Kevin was right. "Gwen was the same way at the power plant. Gwen might have caught whatever bug is doing this."

"Yeah. And the bug's name is Mike Morningstar."

Meanwhile at a castle like structure that was built on a river.

Michael and Gwen were on their 'date'. Inside the castle, Gwen stood near the window overlooking the lake. Michael was at the top of a set of stairs.

"I'm really glad we met, Gwen." Morningstar said as he walked down.

"Me too." Gwen responded.

"I knew there was something special about you the first time we met." Michael said as he approached Gwen.

"I felt it, too."

"And now all those other girls mean nothing." Michael reached to grab Gwen's arms, only now in the palm of his hand there was a strange circular area that seemed like an additional mouth. It was read with what resembled white teeth.

Gwen gasped as energy was being sucked out of her and into Morningstar.

"Your energy is like nothing I've ever felt before." An evil grin formed on Michael's face. "When it flows into me, I feel invincible. Gwen closed her eyes as she and Michael were bathed in a golden aura. "From the moment I touched you, Gwen, I knew I'd found the only girl I'd ever need."

Michael had shown his true colors. Not those of a gentleman, but rather those of a charming serial killer, one who was merely using his charm to lure his victims into a trap.

Meanwhile, on the road...

Kevin and Jack were drivng to where they thought Morningstar and Gwen were. Kevin was deadset on taking him down, but Jack was still sceptical. "Fact is, you've been against Morningstar since the minute we met him." Jack said in protest to Kevin's behavior.

Kevin agreed with Jack, if only partially. "Yeah, but at first, it was just 'cause he's an arrogant, bragging rich kid."

"Who Gwen likes more than she likes you." Jack added.

"Yeah, some of that, but now Gwen's in trouble, and you're too stuck on following your grandpa's instructions to see it." Kevin said, telling Jack why he's wrong.

"If Mike's turning those girls into creatures, why isn't Trina one?" Jack asked.

Kevin then responded with: "I don't know! M-maybe it's like a vampire thing. Maybe it takes a while before they go all-zombie."

Jack remained unconvinced. "Are you listening to yourself?" He asked. "Mike's been helping us ever since we got here." Jack then brought up Morningstar's most recent actions. "Why did he fight them with us?"

Kevin smirked then said: "Ah, but he didn't, remember?" Kevin then explained to Jack what Michael did during that incident. "He told us not to hurt them. Then he accidentally blasted into the pipes and let them get away."

"Even if you're right, we don't know where they went for dinner." Jack had forgotten about the one thing that could track Michael without fail. "How are we supposed to find her?"

"Easy - we find him." Kevin held up his plumber badge and projected the map. He began heading towards the location that was closest to him.

Soon...

Jack and Kevin had come to the building that Michael and Gwen were at.

"The highway we found Trina on is that way." Kevin pointed down the tree lined road. "She didn't just wander out there by coincidence. She was trying to get away from Morningstar."

"Okay. Let's take a break from the crazy theories and just check on Gwen, okay?" Jack asked. He and Kevin walked away from the structure, heading in by walking down a flight of stairs.

Gwen and Morningstar were at the opposite end of the room. Only Gwen wasn't doing too good. Gwen's skin was grey and shriveled. She wasn't dead, just, empty. Michael had been syphoning energy out of her to such an extent that his physical appearance had changed. His skin turned gold due to the amount of power that was flowing through him.

"Gwen!" Kevin shouted as he and Jack ran to Gwen and Morningstar.

After hearing this, Morningstar set Gwen down gently, causing her to exhale heavily. Michael fired at Jack, his overcharge beams knocking Jack down.

"Get away from her!" Kevin kneeled down and touched the ground. His body took on the ground's properties. Morningstar fired a golden energy bolt at Kevin, knocking him off his feet and tossing him back. However, despite the force of the blow, Kevin was for the most part okay due to his stone skin.

Morningstar took aim at Jack. Right as he fired, Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed into one of his alien forms. "Jetray!" The red manta ray like alien said as he flew away from the energy bolt before it hit.

As the Aerophibian flew up to try to get out of Morningstar's line of sight, the half alien took aim at him and fired, a beam of golden energy at Jetray, which the agile alien managed to avoid before returning fire by blasting Michael with bioenergy that was projected from his eyes and tail. It struck the hybrid, but Michael was unfazed by the blow.

"Go away!" Michael shouted as he sent a bolt of gold lightning back at Jetray. The Aerophibian was knocked out of the air and landed on the ground where he was forced to revert back to his human state. Jack groaned as he sat up. "Gwen's mine now." Jack looked up to see Morningstar floating above him, a bolt of energy aimed at him ready to be fired.

"Hey!" Michael looked up to see Kevin lunge at him. Kevin tackled Morningstar to the gorund. He threw a punch at the half alien youth, but the golden skinned one moved his head out of the way to avoid being hit. Michael reached up and grabbed Kevin's face. He flew up and then quickly dove down to the ground, dragging Kevin against the concrete. He then tossed Kevin, sending him cratering into the rock floor. Kevin got up and ran at Morningstar. He threw a punch, but that was effortlessly dodged. Kevin threw two more before Michael struck Kevin's face, causing the Osmosian to stumble back. Following up with as series of light punches, bits and pieces of Kevin's armor began to crack off. Michael fired a beam of energy at Kevin, removing the last bit of armor from him before knocking him back, causing Kevin to land near a half unconscious Jack.

"You're out of your league." Michael said as he flew back to where Gwen was lying down. "Why use your powers to help people when you can use them to get whatever you want?" He held his arms out as several of the zombie girls entered into the room from a set of doors behind Morningstar.

The girls groaned as they approached Morningstar and Gwen.

"All I ever wanted was power." Michael monologued. "And then you brought me Gwen."

Gwen groaned when she heard her name. She opened her eyes and saw what Michael was doing.

"Guess I should thank you." He looked up and saw a massive stone block that was on the ceiling above Jack and Kevin. "I know the perfect thing." He took aim at the block with his hands and fired a beam at it, but his arm was grabbed, causing the beam to disappear mid shot. He looked to see that Gwen had taken ahold of his arm and had woken up. Gwen stood up and grabbed onto both of Morningstar's arms. White light surrounded the two of them. "What are you doing?" Michael asked as he knew something bad was going to happen to him.

"Coming to my senses." Gwen said. The gold began to flake off of Michael as the color returned to Gwen's skin. But that wasn't the full extent to what was happening. Michael pointed one of his hands at Gwen, but the energy that he shot went up and avoided hitting Gwen.

"Stop this!" Michael panicked, losing control of the situation. "Aaaaaaaaah! Unh!" Michael was knocked off his feet and crashed on the ground.

Gwen turned around and saw Kevin and Jack. She ran up to them to try to help them up. "Kevin!" She shouted as she ran. She knelt down next to Kevin and helped him up. Jack sat up and rubbed his head. Kevin had a smile on his face when he saw Gwen.

Michael scowled when he looked at Gwen and Kevin. Michael hadn't walked away from this encounter scot free, his hair was now bone white and his skin was a dead looking grey as opposed to the peach that it used to be. "Girls Come here to me." Michael ordered what he assumed were still his servants under his control. The zombified girls approached him. "Give me your power. Help me. Feed me."

They all hissed at Morningstar when the approached him. The zombies grabbed onto him and dragged him to the ground.

"What? Wait! No!" Michael was mortified as he felt the last bit of energy drain out of him. "Aah! Aah! Aaaaaah!" In a flash of white light, the girls, who were now back to normal, were tossed back, landing on they backs. Besides a few bumps and bruises, they would be alright. They stood up and looked down at the one who had them under his control.

Morningstar looked like he had been aged many years. His hair was starting to fall out and his skin was wrinkled. He gasped as he layed on the ground.

Kevin, Gwen and Jack stood up and turned their attention Morningstar. Kevin stood up and walked over to where Michael laid. Jack and Gwen looked at each other and didn't know what Kevin might do to him.

He grabbed the plumber's badge that was on Michael's belt. "You don't deserve this." He said before turning his fist and arm into steel, allowing him to shatter the badge. He dropped it to the ground by Michael's head.

Later...

As the trio drove off, Jack broke the silence between the three of them. "Listen, guys. I'm sorry I took Morningstar's side over yours" He said to Kevin. Before turning his head to face Gwen. "And, more important, that I wasn't watching your back."

Gwen knew that her cousin's apology was genuine, but wanted to assure him that the blame wasn't all his. "It wasn't your fault. I guess Morningstar had some kind of control over me."

"It was my fault. I was in such a hurry to build our team, I ignored the danger." Jack said in spite of Gwen's sympathy. "If I'm going to be a good leader, I'm going to need to show better judgment."

"If you're gonna be a good leader, you need to stop sounding like such a jerk." Kevin said in agreeance with Jack, while using that as an excuse to make fun of him.

"Kevin!" Gwen didn't appreciate Kevin's criticism of Jack.

"No, that's okay. He's right - I'm a jerk." Jack agreed, mostly so that what he said next was dropped on Kevin with maximum bluntness. "So, Kevin, when you gonna ask Gwen out?"

Chapter end

Author's note: Sorry again that this took a while.


End file.
